


A Picture of Love

by imaginary_rose



Category: Original Work
Genre: But not Anti-Twilight either, F/M, It's more Fantasy than Supernatural, Minor Character Death, Not like Twilight, Urban Fantasy, Vampires, VampirexHuman Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-24
Updated: 2013-10-25
Packaged: 2017-12-27 11:23:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 51,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/978261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_rose/pseuds/imaginary_rose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The chimera is a creature with an insatiable desire. And now that desire is focused solely on one man. Isis must put herself between the chimera and Draven. But, standing that close, she finds herself drawn to him as inexplicably as the chimera is. Can he accept her and everything that she is? Can she open up enough to let him?</p><p>After a couple of strange encounters with the even stranger Isis, Draven has to concede that something strange is going on. Unfortunately, he doesn't want strange. He just wants to take Isis's picture and maybe not die. The way things are going, he might not get to do either. Which is really a shame. Isis is quite pretty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hades-Angel13](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Hades-Angel13).



> Commissioned novel. The characters herein, Isis, Draven, Freya and Osiris belong to HadesAngel13 on deviantart. Please do not copy, sell, or redistribute my work without explicit permission from me.

Chapter One

[Against the dark backdrop of the sky, the moon shone brilliantly, highlighting the sharp spires that sprung from the castle. The four towers glowed silver in the moonlight. Thick clouds, a mixture of dark grays and violets, moved across the moon and doused the world in darkness. The people moved steadily forward toward the castle, uninhibited the gloom. They crossed the bridge just as a sliver of light escaped the shroud and alighted on the river.](http://fav.me/d6nlxgz)

[The river flowed gently underneath the bridge, illuminating the red hues that sloshed between the riverbanks. Lanterns with flames of blues and greens hung from the entrance, welcoming the travelers into the castle in anticipation of the upcoming ceremony.](http://fav.me/d6nlxgz)

In the castle, past the milling guests, up the winding stairwell, through the halls and into the southernmost tower, the guest of honor prepared herself for the ceremony. A girl of a modest 250 years, Isis Fairblood was ready to give her pledge  and be welcomed into the ranks of the warriors. As the only child of King Osiris, the rite had garnered a crowd.

Not atypically of her people, she had pale skin and large dragon-like wings emerging from her back. Tucking her wings close to her body, she pulled her brush through her long, silken black hair. It felt strange to have her hair down, usually she had it twisted into a overly-complicated style that took hours to create. Instead, she would be accepting the warrior’s oath with as little adornments as possible.

Dropping the hairbrush on the dresser, she moved to stand in front of her full-length mirror. She looked on her reflection with a critical eye, removing any hint of emotion from her face. She had already changed into the ceremonial garb and now she was just waiting for the ceremony to begin. If she weren’t a princess, she might be pacing in impatient anticipation.

Lifting her hand, she slid her fingers lightly across the small shoulderplates she wore. They were black, like the rest of her outfit, and accentuated by silver to match her eyes. The lightweight material of the ensemble was made for appearances and wouldn’t be fit to protect her in an actual emergency. Of course, nothing of the sort would be happening today. But when would she get her first assignment? Not soon enough. Everything would changed and she was ready for it.

No more balls and state functions where all they talked about were trivial things, who was marrying who and the like. They always bored Isis to tears. Now, it was all steel and leather armor in her future. Her mother despaired of her. Isis never dressed ‘lady-like’ unless she was forced into dresses. And her hobbies included fighting and Earth; not the topics of polite conversation.

Moving away from the mirror, she settled herself at her desk. In the drawer to her right, in the corner, underneath the papers she kept stuffed there, she pulled out a palm-sized crystal. It was dark, absorbing the light from the room, and old. She pushed aside the guilt with practiced ease as she gently placed the crystal in front of her.

Earth, while not expressly forbidden, was still a taboo subject. People didn’t talk about it. They pretended like it didn’t exist. But she knew that before she had even been born, Earth had once been the home of her people. But then her father had found a new world that didn’t put such a strain on their bodies and led them to it. People had cut all ties with Earth, but she liked to look on and watch the humans.

They were so curious. Smart, resourceful. Paradoxically resistant to change, but reliant on it. Whereas her people were both resistant and independent of it. Therein lie the reason it took 200 years before she had finally convinced her parents to allow her to take the warrior’s oath.

She had always wanted to take the warrior’s oath. When she had been a child and she had first proposed the notion, her father had laughed and ruffled her hair. "We would be glad to have you," he had said and she remembered his crimson eyes crinkling at the corner with mirth. Over time, when he realized this was a serious dream that she would do anything to see realized, he had been tougher on her.

The warrior's oath was a serious commitment and he wanted to make sure she and everyone else knew that when she accepted the oath, it was because she was fully capable of doing it and not just because she was the king’s daughter.

She had had to prove that she could hold her own in any fight and she had. Time and time again, but they continued to deny her. It was the king who administered the oath and if her father refused to allow her to take the warrior's oath, she was stuck on the training grounds. It was only after she had shown her skill, defeating ten of the best warriors in a combat back to back with no rest in between, that Osiris had conceded the point. She was ready.

She knew he only refused so long because he was worried about her and not because she was a poor candidate for becoming a warrior. She was his only daughter, the heir to the throne, and he loved her. But she had to do this.

She knew her mother didn't approve either, but she kept her comments mostly to herself and only tried to convince Isis whenever she thought she saw a chink in her armor. Although Freya didn’t fight herself, she had perhaps given Isis her most valuable fighting skill. She was patient and wise and knew when and where to pick her battles. Isis was more impatient than Freya, but occasionally she was able to refrain from rash decisions by thinking of her mother's kind violet eyes.

She was going to be a warrior. She was almost giddy, though she didn’t let more than a smile grace her face. It slipped from her face when the door opened and her mother strode in. She was wearing a dark gown that swept across the ground as she practically glided across the room. A  belt studded with amethyst crystals was cinched around her waist to accentuate her trim build. She kept her purple dragon wings tucked tightly against her back, as was proper for a queen.

"Mother," she said, shoving the crystal back into the drawer. When she got up, she nudged the drawer closed with a twitch of her hip. "What are you doing here?" she asked, walking toward her. "Is father ready for me in the great hall?"

"No," Freya said. Her voice was light and delicate, though it was like a feather pillow with a dagger hidden inside. She could fight if she wanted to, but her weapons were her words. "Not yet."Freya dropped her hands onto Isis's shoulders and squeezed gently. "I came to speak to you. I  know that I have not always been fully supportive of this," she mouth puckered at the word, "decision."

Gentle pressure forced Isis to sit on the settee behind her and Freya took a seat on her right. "I don't understand this. I still don't, even though I've been trying. When your father made that announcement, I was shocked to say the least. But, I realized that you may have picked up on my distaste for you taking the warrior's oath and I want you to know. I am proud of you."

Isis's eyes prickled and she looked down at their clasped hands. Her mother's hands were even paler than her own. "Thank you. Hearing that, it, it makes me happy." She looked into Freya's eyes. "I feared that I had disappointed you."

Freya wrapped her arms around her and pulled her into a hug. "Never."

The doubts that plagued her, driven by her mother, eased slightly with her words. Freya had always said being a warrior was not a befitting pastime for a princess. She could not comprehend that being a warrior was not a pastime for Isis. It was a lifestyle that she planned on fully embracing and to have her mother here with her before her initiation was important.

Freya smiled tightly and got to her feet. She looked into Isis's face, searching for hesitation or a shift in her determination. "There's nothing I can do to convince you otherwise?" she asked. Isis shook her head firmly and she nodded, closing her eyes and sighing. "Then yes, I am proud of you. If this is what you want?" She peeked at her and Isis nodded once again. "If this is what you want, then this is what I want."

She took a deep breath and looked like she was fortifying herself. Before she could say anything else, there was a knock at the door. She gathered her dress around her and headed for the door. She opened it and exchanged words with the person on the other side. Finally, she turned back to Isis. "Well, I suppose this is my cue to leave. I'll see you in a little bit." Isis waved to her mother as Freya glided through to the door. She left the door open as she left and Tau entered. Isis smiled when she saw him.

Tau was dark and handsome in a brooding kind of way. He had dark, thin eyebrows that seemed perpetually lowered over his eyes when he was happy, sad or smugly self-satisfied. His eyes were just as dark as the rest of them, giving the appearance of being black when they were actually just a dark brown. His wings were black and the underside was a sharp red in contrast.

He was always wearing dark colors and dressed more like a prince than Isis did like a princess. That was why her mother liked him so much. That and she didn't know he shared her fascination with Earth.

She’d known him for over a century. His father had been one of the king's most trusted generals and had been killed fifty years earlier. One of the creatures bound to the dungeons had been set free and it had killed his father as he defended the castle.

He shut the door behind himself and she wrapped her arms around him in an impromptu hug. Allowing her mask to slip just a little, she said, "I'm so glad you're here."

"This is unexpected," he said in his deep voice, though he returned her embrace. "What's this for? Are you getting cold feet?"

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Definitely not.” He made a dubious sound and dropped heavily onto the settee, his dark wings stretching out lazily behind him. She settled her hands on her hips. “What?”

He shrugged. “Sometimes I wasn’t so sure you would go through with this.” She pressed her lips together and kept the pain from her face. Tau had become a warrior not long before his father's death and had helped her train over the years as she struggled to get her father's approval. Hadn’t he believed in her?

Something must have showed on her face. “I’m just saying, this is a choice and I wasn’t sure which one you were going to choose. When you accept the oath, there's no going back. You'll never have the life you imagined. No princess has ever accepted the warrior's oath. It's an anomaly. You're giving up on everything."

“The warrior's way is my way,” she said firmly. “I'm going to take the oath tonight."

“Okay, wonderful.” He made a dismissive wave of his hand. “It’s goodbye to all your silly frippery. No more dresses and galas. It's just the important stuff from now on. Maybe it’s not what I expected, but I do think it's fortunate that you've decided to give up on the princess-thing."

Angrily, she whirled around to face him. "I haven't given up on the whole 'princess-thing,'" she said in a tightly controlled voice. "I am King Osiris's daughter. No matter what I do I will always be Princess Isis. And one day I will be queen. Remember that."

Something flickered across his face and he lifted his hands in supplication. "Of course, Isis. I didn't mean to insult you. I just meant that as a warrior you can do more for our people than as a princess."

“Being a princess is not all frivolity. My mother is very involved with that type of the thing but as a Queen she does a lot for the people. It doesn't have to just be frippery. Maybe I should have listened to my mother more, growing up. Perhaps, all this time, I've just been doing the 'princess-thing' wrong. Maybe that's what she's been trying to tell me all this time."

She looked up when Tau got to his feet. He approached her and dropped his hands to her shoulders, smoothing his thumbs across her neck. "Isis. This is important. Are you getting cold feet? Because taking the warrior's oath with half a heart will get you killed."

"No." She shook her head vehemently. "No. I am not having second thoughts. Trust me. It's just with my mother having just been in here, I've been thinking about where she was coming from. I don't think I gave her a fair chance growing up, but I do think that even if I had, I still would have chosen the warrior's path. This is where I belong. This is my duty. I think I could do the most good as a warrior."

He smiled and gently squeezed her shoulders. "Good. Good. The ceremony is about to start. Shall we go?"

She nodded and, together, they left the room.

 

*  
"I present my daughter, the Princess Isis Fairblood, into the ranks of warriors." King Osiris was resplendent in his gold trimmed ceremonial armor. His dark hair was slick back against his head his dark red wings were spread out behind him.

Seeing him standing there, in all his kingly glory, reiterated for Isis what this oath meant. This wasn't her father asking her if she was going to be committed to helping the people. This was the king demanding her blood oath to helping the people. "Isis Fairblood, do you accept this responsibility and all that entails."

"I do, Your Majesty," she said, keeping her head bowed.

"Do you swear to uphold the laws of this nation and this crown?"

"I do, Your Majesty."

"Do you swear to put the needs of those under your protection above your own?"

"I do, Your Majesty." Hearing the oath, in this setting, relaxed Isis for some reasons. She had thought it would be a big commitment and that she would have to meditate on the questions in order to be able to answer truly.

But now, hearing her father reciting the warrior's oath, it put everything in perspective. It was like taking an oath to be a princess, except with an added element. She'd been doing this all her life and now it was in an official capacity. She could answer every question with "I do, Your Majesty," knowing she could and would uphold the warrior's oath.

Finally, the oath came to a close and Osiris asked the last question. "I do, Your Majesty," Isis answered. The dagger swiped across her hand in one quick motion and blood welled up from the wound. It trickled over her pale hand and splattered on the ground, binding her essence to her word.

"Then rise, Warrior Fairblood . Rise and take your place amongst the warriors."

She got to her feet and went to stand next to Tau. She stared straight ahead, ignoring the crowd that had packed into the Great Hall and assembled in the balconies. She stared as her father finished his speech.

"My people, look at your warriors. They will protect you with every breath they breathe to the last drop of lifeblood in them. These are your warriors." He lifted his hand a cheer spread through the crowd. She let the sound wash over her.

Isis wasn't sure how long the cheers continued. But then they grew distant, faded, and she was overwhelmed with a feeling of dread. The air went sharp and bright and she had to lift her hands to her eyes to shield herself from it. Distantly, she heard the cheers turn to screams.

Abruptly, the translucent quality of her sight was the least of her problems. The ground began to quake, shuddering with the same apprehension she felt. Her hands flailed out, crashing into Tau as they both struggled to stay on their feet. The floor cracked and shattered like glass; fractures rent the ground in two. Bending her legs underneath her, she launched herself upward to escape the buckling floor.

With the structural integrity compromised, giant slabs of rock fell from the ceiling and Isis had to twist and turn in the air to avoid them. She swooped toward the balconies, keeping her eyes peeled for something out of the ordinary, well, out of the ordinary excluding the earthquake. One thing she was certain of, the earthquake was not natural. On some plane, there had been a disturbance. Something so profound, it manifested physically and made her vision go fuzzy.

She landed unsteadily on the gilded railing and took deep breaths to get herself under control. The flap of wings was the only warning she got before Tau dropped down beside her. His hand on her shoulder was warm. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Pinching her lips together, she stiffened her spine and made herself look okay, even if she wasn't quite feeling it. "This earthquake isn't a natural shifting of the land. Something else has happened. Something beyond our realm." His gaze grew grim and he nodded.

"Any idea what?"

"Not yet. I'll have to discuss it with my father."

“Let’s get these people out of here first,” he said. She nodded her agreement around a tight smile.


	2. Chapter Two

In another world, the sun was trekking across the sky and a lone figure waited on a bench underneath its blaze. It was the time of the year where the days were hot and the nights were cold and it was hard to prepare for both. Draven Kim rolled the sleeves of his thin jacket up to his elbows and leaned back against the bench. Tilting his head back, he closed his dark eyes and tried to think cool, relaxing thoughts. 

He had rushed to make it to the bus stop from his last class of the day and the damned thing was late. He was regretting his decision to wear all black, but it wasn't like he had a variety of colors in his closet. Just black and that lone gray sweater his mother had bought last Christmas. He opened his eyes when he heard the rumble of the approaching bus. 

Squinting into the distance, he waited for the bus’s imminent arrival before pushing himself to his feet. Then he took a moment to collect his equipment; he’d spread it across the bench to discourage anyone from sitting next to him.

He slid the strap to his camera over his neck and secured it around his neck. Next was the camera stand tucked underneath his left arm and his bookbag slung over his right shoulder. He ignored the dirty look he received from the bus driver and walked his bike to the front of the bus. It was another moment before he had secured it to the bike rack and finally loaded the bus. Digging into his pocket, he produced the correct amount of change. He had barely gotten a few steps from the front before the bus lurched forward. 

He grabbed onto a pole and braced himself. There weren't any available seats anyway. Everyone was riding the bus home after a long day. There was no air flowing through the bus. It was cramped and crowded and had the vague scent of sweat and loathing. Draven was miserable. 

He pressed his lips together and curled his hand around his camera. It was an interminable ride, punctuated by stops and starts. He was jostled as a woman pushed her way to the front in an effort to get off the bus before anyone else. A girl, perhaps a little younger than himself, slid into her vacated seat and commenced staring at him. He pretended not to see her; his stop was approaching. Only a few more blocks. 

"Nice tats," she said. She had on a pink shirt with black fishnet sleeves and he could see a number of colorful tattoos peeking through the mesh. He grunted something that could be taken as gratitude and reached over her head to pull the cord to signal his stop. "Nice piercings too. Very cool." He grimaced and gratefully escaped the bus as soon as the doors were open. After pulling his bike from the rack, he glanced up as he wheeled it away from the bus and saw the girl watching him from the window. 

It wasn't the first time someone had tried to start a conversation with him based on his non-traditional look, but he didn't think it was enough to carry a conversation or to start a relationship. They were such a part of him that sometimes he had to actually remind himself what these people were talking about. If she had remarked on his camera, he might have tried, but she had been focused on his looks.

Perhaps he was just being a hypocrite. He liked taking pictures of interesting things and he just didn't think of himself as an interesting thing. He wouldn't take his own picture and he would rather not talk about himself. Perhaps that was why he had very few friends and none that he was actually close to. He liked to think that it was his choice to be a friendless loser and not any social ineptitude. More like voluntary social ineptitude. Shaking his head, he checked to make sure all of his equipment was secured on his person and swung his leg over his bike. Pushing off, he set off for his destination, excitement bubbling up at a slow burn. 

Sometimes he picked a spot on the map, an area of the city he he hadn't yet visited, and explored, looking for something of interest. However, on this occasion he knew his exact target. The passing scenery changed from the derelict to deserted. 

This was the fringes of the city; the secret underbelly. The city wasn't very large, but it thrived closer to the college campus and withered at the edges. But that was one of the reasons he had chosen to go to school there and it had influenced his decision to pursue his passion full time. He was going to be a professional photographer. Or die trying. Unfortunately the latter was seeming more and more likely as his graduation date crept ever closer. 

But this was not the time to worry about his future. Now he was just going to take pictures. He hadn't had an opportunity to do something for himself in a while and he wasn't going to allow himself to become distracted. Nothing was going to ruin the expedition. Resolved, he set his feet to the pedals and focused on moving forward. 

He was relieved to see that building hadn't changed too much since his first visit. It wasn't uncommon to come back even a week later to find the structures had given up the ghost in the meantime. Some of the images he had were of buildings that no longer stood. When he discovered that a building he had photographed was demolished sometimes he would try to get back out to the site and take a picture of the rubble.

He had a small Internet following of people who enjoyed looking at his before and after shots, though he had to deal with occasional idiot wanting to know why he didn't take a picture before the building was abandoned. That wasn't the point, of course.

The building had once been a rather nice house, but as the factory had shut down the family had left. At one time the house had been full of life and happiness. Now it was a shadow of its former self. It had had a purpose in the past and he wanted to give it a purpose again, even if only a short while. His parents didn't understand his obsession with abandoned buildings, but when he took pictures of them, he tried to recapture their glory and help them live on in posterity. 

Swinging off his bike, he wheeled it behind an overgrown bush. He didn't think there was anyone around for miles, but that didn't mean he had to be stupid about his only transportation back to the bus stop. That taken care of, he approached the building with awestruck steps. 

Termites had made a feast of the wooden slats that were left behind. It looked like someone had torn whole chunks of wood from the structure to be reused at another location or even burned. Vertical wooden poles bisected the porch and bowed out under the strain of their burden. The roof was sagging in on itself and the wooden slats had gaping holes in them. Even then, it didn't look half as bad from the front as it did from behind.

Grabbing his camera stand and checking the digital camera around his neck, he went around back. It was that area that had really attracted his attention when he had been examining the buildings from a good subject. It had been a while since he had been in the area and he wasn't sure how much had changed in the meantime. 

He had so little time now that it was his senior year that this was a small indulgence that he hoped he wouldn't regret. The back was more dilapidated than the front. He thought once the owners had tried to sell the house again, fixing up the front a little. Evidently the idea had petered out, leaving just the ruins behind.

It shouldn't have been a surprise that the house had deteriorated even further in the time that he had been away, but it had already been a mess when he had arrived the first time. There had been a hole in the roof on his last visit, but now parts of the chimney were crumbling down as well. The left side of the house was leaning into the right side and the wooden slats were almost at perpendicular angles to the rest of the house. 

He set up his camera stand and focused on the gaping hole in the wall. The way the chimney stood out against the backdrop of the black hole was striking. Then he focused on the angles in the basic house structure. On the right side of the house, the area he hadn't come from it was worse than he had thought. The walls of the side and back of the house were starting to bend outward and the corners had huge holes between them. He snapped the picture, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. Beautiful. 

He dug through his tight pockets and pulled out his phone to check the time. He didn't need to head back to the bus stop just yet and there was still a good deal of sunlight to work with. Leaving his camera stand, he stepped back away from the house to try to picture the whole thing. He debated where his next picture would come from. 

His dark eyes were once again drawn back to the gaping wound in the side of the house. He took a few pictures from a couple of different angles, but he felt called to come closer. He felt like there was more to the house underneath the surface. He crept close enough that he could put his hands on the wood if he so chose. However, he decided to keep his hands to himself; it was condemned for a reason.

Lifting the camera to his eyes, he turned the flash on and focused in as far as he could. He didn't know what he expected to find. Rats. Bats, maybe. But he took the picture anyway. He lowered the camera and strained his ears to pick up any sound. It was quiet. "Strange,” he murmured to himself.

Any number of wild animals should have taken the home up as shelter. He sort of wanted to get a picture of whatever creatures were living there, to show that the house was still a home. Just to a non-traditional family. And yet there was nothing. He shuffled a few steps closer. His Converses hit against the side of the house and he was forced to stop. 

He tried to pierce the darkness with his own, very human eyes, but of course couldn't see anything. Lifting the camera, he took his final picture and turned to leave. The house sighed; he froze. Houses breathed and groaned, of course, but this was different from anything he had ever heard before. It wasn't the same sound as air pressure shifting. This was different. There was something inside of the house. He turned back around. He leapt back in shock, strangling the scream that scratched at his throat. 

Bright eyes, reflecting an unknown light source, were staring back at him. Pressing his hand to his chest, he calmed his breathing. Just an animal. He’d known there would be some. He lifted his camera slowly, wary of startling the creature into jumping on him. He quickly snapped the picture and pulled the camera away from his eyes.

He really had no idea what he was looking at. Tilting his head to the side, he tried to at least decipher its body shape. The red eyes were low to the ground, reflecting off of the debris scattered inside the house. It was most likely a rat, he thought, clicking the button for the flash. Whatever it was, he would take its picture and figure out what it was when he was back in his apartment. 

He lifted the camera and tried to get the best angle for the picture. The sun was quickly slipping toward the horizon and he would need to leave soon. This would have to be his last picture, so he wanted it to be a good one. He looked at the image transposed on his screen and shifted the camera to see how each angle appeared on the camera. 

Something moved and he frowned, trying to figure out what it was. Something high above the creature was moving. A bat? He took a step back and lifted the camera higher to get a larger image of the inside of the house. A piece of the shadow peeled away from the rest. His eyes widened as he realized that it wasn't just a bat fluttering above the rat. Whatever it was, it was attached to the rat. And the rat wasn't a rat. 

He was looking at some huge creature. A bear? He gasped and took a step back as the creature moved forward. He tripped over his own two feet and shuffled backward. The crack in the side of the house was enlarged when two claw-tipped hands grabbed either side and shoved the walls even farther apart. 

Not a bear.

The red eyes rose as the creature lifted its head and stalked out of the house. It was a desaturated tan color that was stretched across bones, giving it a skeletal appearance. The red in its eyes were glowing balls of fire nestled deep into the skeletal holes on its face. The eye sockets were huge, but the red eyes were pinpoints of lights that almost seemed to get lost in the darkness of the holes. 

Its skeletal mouth was turned upward in a frightening smile and the glowing eyes seemed to burn brighter and wider. The hands were massive in comparison to the rest of its body and it seemed scarily skinny. Its legs were bent at the knees and it balanced on the pads of its foot. Claws dug into the ground. 

Breathing heavily, Draven continued to scramble backward, but he couldn't move far enough, fast enough. He opened his mouth to scream, to call for help, though there was no one around for miles. He was going to die. Eaten by a creature that shouldn't exist. 

The clouds moved over the sun, bringing on the shadow of night that much sooner. Everything had a dark tint with reddish undertones. The creature leaned in close enough that if it were breathing Draven might have felt its breath on his face. He lifted his hands, trying to put even a small, insignificant barrier between him and the creature. 

He watched in terror as the creature's chest expanded as though it was taking a breath. Draven didn't know what he was doing, but he could feel it. His body felt heavy and darkness crept into his vision. He blinked, feeling himself tip backward, but unable to do anything about it. He could see the skin of the creature plumping up and lightening. Suddenly, the clouds parted from the last of the sunlight and sliced a piece of fading sunlight across the creature's skin.

Throwing its head back, it howled and retreated away from Draven. It disappeared back into shadows of the building until all Draven could see were its red, glowing eyes watching him. Waiting for him. The spell that had been over him was lifted.

Gasping, he struggled to his feet and put distance between him and the creature. His steps were staggered and unsteady as he headed for his bike. He swung his leg over the side and pushed away from the building. When he wheeled onto the road, he had the insane idea to turn around. To go back. He almost didn't want to leave the creature behind. 

Tapping his head with the palm of his hand, he kept riding trying to silence the crying in his head. He was being ridiculous. He needed to put as much distance between himself and the creature and maybe call animal control or something. Except that thing was no animal he had ever seen before. The further away he got, the easier it was to keep pedaling. 

He made it just in time to stumble upon the bus. He must have looked wild; he felt wild. He’d left everything behind except his bike and camera around his neck. He looked at the faces staring back at him. Some looked annoyed, but most looked disinterested. There was some creature outside, an unbelievable monster, just down the lane.

And no one would believe him. They’d think he was high or just crazy. Hell, maybe he was going crazy. All the stress from school might be catching up to him. He collapsed on the seat and ran his hands through his hair. Leaning forward, he rested his hands on his knees and just focused on breathing, on being able to breathe. 

As the bus pulled away, he glanced over his shoulder half-expecting the creature to be bearing down on him and the bus, but the streets were empty. No. He wasn't crazy. The damned thing had nearly killed him. Whatever it was. He looked down at the camera still clutched in his hand. He didn't know what the creature was and no one was going to believe him, but he had proof. 

He had proof.


	3. Chapter Three

Isis stood with her hands clasped behind her back in line with the assembled warriors. It was a little strange to be on this side of the briefing, but again there was the sense of this rightness. One day she would be standing where her father was, preparing her warriors for a future conflict, but for now she was preparing herself for a combat based on the information her father gave. A thread of anticipation wound through her, like a coiled wire ready to spring. 

Stepping down from his throne, Osiris scanned the faces of the warriors before speaking. "The earthquake was caused by a strong shift in energy. We've traced the source of the earthquake to Earth," he said gravely.

Earth. Isis could see the alarm in the sudden tension emanating from her fellow warriors. Aside for whatever had caused the earthquake, Earth carried its own dangers. Like many creatures in all the worlds, they feared that which they did not understand. 

And Isis's people were something they could not wrap their minds around, no matter how much they tried. It was actually quite interesting to see the acrobatics the human mind went through in order to compartmentalize everything, to rationalize everything. If something went against those categories they either forced it to submit or they destroyed it. 

In the past, when her people had revealed their presence, they nearly always wound up in the latter category. And humans had streamlined their ability for destruction. It was staggering. Mentally shaking her head, she focused on what her father was saying.

"The source comes from a human city in a place the humans call Virginia.” Osiris looked at her and then slid his gaze to Tau, who was standing on her left. “We've determined the energy belongs to the chimera.” 

Tau went rigid and Isis suppressed a gasp. A princess should never show her surprise. Even if the creature that had killed her best friend’s father had finally been found after fifty years. “It seems that is where it has taken refuge after all these years. Fifty years and we've finally discovered its location. That it has remained undetected all these years leads me to believe that it has indeed been hibernating this past half-century."

Osiris looked troubled by the news and Freya glided down the dais to lay a calming hand on his arm when he clenched it into a fist. It took Isis a moment to understand the implication. The creature wouldn't just travel to another world and hibernate. If it went to Earth, it went to hunt. 

That mean, somebody else had subdued it and hidden it away on Earth. An enemy within. This vampire must have put the creature to sleep after it had killed Tau's father and then hidden it somewhere where no one would ever look. Earth. She glanced at Tau out of the corner of her eye. His smoldering eyes were narrowed and his mouth pinched in anger. 

"A team will need to go to Earth and bring the creature back," Freya said in her soft voice. From her place by Osiris’s side, she looked over the warriors. Her eyes slid past Isis as though she couldn't see her. Isis tried not to think too hard into what that could mean. "It will be a dangerous journey. You will have to feed there, of course." A murmur of alarm arose. Without fail, it was the feeding that always brought her people to the attention of the humans. Freya silenced the group with a twitch of her elegant eyebrows. 

"To avoid detection, we cannot send a large party. No more than three.” She glanced to Osiris; he nodded in agreement. “You must locate this thing and bring it back here. You cannot engage it on Earth or the entire realm would be destroyed. We will be able to offer you no assistance in your mission. You will be on your own."

Isis could practically feel the thoughts running down the line of warriors. This mission was more dangerous than anything they had had to contend with in centuries. It was always dangerous enough going to Earth and being forced to feed from the humans, but it would be augmented by the necessity of tracking and subduing the chimera without engaging it. Isis knew that more than a few of the warriors thought they should just attack the creature and let Earth be damned. "We will need volunteers."

Isis stepped forward. Someone needed to look out for Earth and the humans and she couldn't sit back and just hope that someone would. Despite what they had done in the past, not all of them could be bad. There was so many of them, she was sure that in some pocket of the world there was someone with a pure soul. And if nothing, that one person deserved to live. Destroying his home or leaving it a barren wasteland was not in keeping with the warrior's oath. "I volunteer,” she stated clearly.

She could see the anguish in her mother's eyes and she knew that this was what she had feared would happen; this was why her eyes had skimmed over Isis easily. "Oh," Freya said softly. Osiris stepped forward and gently pushed Freya back into her seat. She went docilely, her large eyes focused on Isis. 

"Isis," her father started, but she quickly cut him off.

"If I go, I'll be able to track it more easily and to open a portal more quickly. The less time we spend on Earth the better," she said, staring straight ahead. She watched her parents faces out of the corner of her eyes, waiting for a reaction to her words. When Freya closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands, Isis knew her father would see reason. It took only a moment before he clasped his hands together behind his back and nodded slowly.

“Very well.” He turned away from her and scanned the gathered warriors. "Anyone else." His voice was low and dangerous. She knew requirement for volunteers would be more stringent. Even if she had the most training underneath her. Even if she was the strongest warrior with the most experience. It wouldn't matter what her qualifications were, her father would never allow her to travel with just anyone. 

"I'll go." It was Tau, of course. His father's murderer had finally been found. She knew he wouldn't allow someone else to bring it in. And what would he think when he realized that there was an enemy in their midst, if he hadn't already figured it out.

Surely, her mother would be relieved that Tau would be accompanying her, though why she thought he would be more capable than she was beyond her. Osiris nodded and motioned for Tau to step forward. He came to stand next to her. "Good," Osiris said. "You'll do your father proud." 

Tau's hand clenched into a fist, but it was down between the two of them and she didn't think her father had seen it. Osiris swept his crimson gaze across the rest of the assembled warriors. "Will anyone else join them?" She could hear a challenge in his voice and it wasn't long before another one of the warriors stepped forward. 

He looked about the same age as her and it just reminded her how long she had had to wait before she was allowed to take the warrior's oath. If it wasn't for her parents interference this might not have been her first campaign and she wouldn't feel that trickle of fear slither down her spine. 

The other warrior, despite being younger than her, had done this before. She had never seen him fight and he had never challenged her the way other warriors had, thinking she would be just another spoilt princess, so she wasn't sure of his capabilities. 

Still he looked confident, standing there and Osiris quickly approved of him. "Excellent. Thank you, Akil. That's it then," he said, looking over the three of them. "The rest of you are dismissed," he said with a wave of his hand. 

There was the sound of booted feet marching across the linoleum as the rest of the warriors filed out, just leaving the five of them. "You three will go to Earth,” he said, looking at each one of them one at a time. “Prepare yourself. You leave within the hour."

"Yes, sire," they said in unison. 

*  
"Go. The rest of us await your return." He looked to Tau. "When you return we will dispose of this creature once and for all."

"Yes, sire," he said in a soft and dangerous voice. She couldn't imagine what was going through his mind.

"Isis," Freya said, getting up from throne and approaching the three of them. She folded her hands together against her her chest and looked Isis over. She wondered what her mother saw when she looked at her. "This is your first expedition. Be safe. And listen to Tau." Isis tried not to let her distaste show on her face. She was about to agree when her father stepped forward with a shake of his head.

"No, Isis has been training for this moment her whole life. She is a princess and she must learn to lead her subjects." She stared at him in surprise and she wasn't the only one. Freya's lips parted and her eyebrows trekked up her forehead. 

"You will take lead on this, but you must learn to listen to those who have more experience than you," he said, nodding to Tau and Akil. "They will be the experience you lack. You must base your orders on what they tell you, but you must also trust your instincts. You’ll know what to do."

She bowed her head, overcome with the trust he was putting in her. "Yes, sire," she said. She hoped the other two didn't feel usurped by her father's words. She clenched her hands into fist and resolved herself. She wouldn't let them feel displaced. 

She knew she would not be able to do it without them and as their princess, she must show them that she knew she was relying on their help and guidance. "It will be as you say," she said with a bow. He placed his hand on the crown of her head and his wings rustled. She remembered when she had been so much smaller and he had to reach down to do this.

"Go now."

"And be safe," Freya added. Her eyes glistened. Isis hoped her mother was not about to cry. If she did, Isis might begin to regret her decision. Fortunately, Freya was able to hold it together, taking deep breaths from where she sat on the throne.

Isis nodded and turned to her comrades. They had changed into clothing more suitable for battle rather than the ceremonial garb they had been decked out when they had first felt the tremors. Even now, she could still feel the creature moving somewhere in the place called Virginia. She didn't know where exactly and it would be harder to pinpoint once she was on Earth, but in her soul she could feel it moving. She knew once she got close to it, she would be able to track. They just needed to get that close.

Pushing her cloak aside, Isis pulled out her scythe and twirled it in her hands out of habit as she prepared herself. As a Fairblood, Isis could open portals to other worlds more easily than others. She hadn't had an opportunity to use it very often and without the supervision of her father, but she took a deep breath. She could feel Osiris's eyes on her. She would not disappoint. 

Closing her eyes, she slashed the scythe down, making a diagonal slice in the air. She could feel the rip as the distance between here and there was torn. When she opened her eyes, she saw an opening in time and space. Narrowing her eyes, she focused on her destination. The x-shaped rip in the air was a swirling blackness. 

That blackness shimmered and finally solidified. She saw a quiet paved street. There were houses lining either side, but their lights were off. It was late night, she wasn't sure what time, but still late enough that there wouldn't be many people out. And if any humans saw her and her team step out onto the street from seemingly nowhere, there was a good chance that they would write it off as a trick of their faulty night vision. It was a good time. 

She met Tau and Akil's eyes and nodded. They were frowning gravely, but returned her gesture. She looked one last time at her parents, but didn't say anything. There was nothing left to say. She stepped through the portal and Tau and Akil followed her. 

The street was as deserted as when the portal had first opened. It was dark save for the streetlight they were standing under. It cast a cruel, pale pallor over Tau and Akil. She wondered what she looked like under the Earth's artificial lighting. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the odd lighting of the humans. 

There was a strange scent in the air that made her want to follow it to the source. She clenched her hands into fists just shy of drawing blood and got herself back under control. "We need to find shelter," she said. Her voice sounded loud to her ears, but she knew it was just in contrast to the silence of the street. Whenever she had looked in on Earth there was always something going on somewhere. She had no idea that they were capable of such quiet.

"Shelter." Tau's lip curled and he looked up and down the street with disgust. "What's the need to look. There are plenty of places for us to set up our base of operation."

She frowned and shook her head. "An unoccupied shelter. We don't want to disturb the occupants."

"I doubt the human mind has changed that much over the years. I'm sure they're still remarkably easy to convince with a little persuasion." He smirked and looked like he expected her to laugh at his joke.

Humans would have to be easily persuaded or else her people would not be able to blend in there. They had learned from an early age how to project an illusion. It worked better on some people than it did on others. With humans, it worked exceptionally well. There minds were always eager for a rational explanation and it helped that for the most part, her people could pass for humans, albeit very pale ones. 

It was just the wings that would throw a human mind into disarray mostly. That and the feeding, but otherwise they could pass easily. There were rumors that some of her people lived amongst the humans, moving around every few decades when it became apparent that they weren't aging like the other humans. She wasn't sure of the validity of it. She thought the humans were fascinating and worthy of being, for the most part, but she could never willingly live there for any length of time. They needed to get in and out of the ocean of humanity with as little ripples as possible.

"Have you forgotten already. We're supposed to keep a low profile. We need to be seen by as few humans as possible and we need to disturb their lives as little as possible. You'd be surprised how much the humans can change in the span of a few short centuries."

Tau's thin eyebrows narrowed, but Akil nodded his head. "I agree. I think we should find a quiet place to set up and plan out how we're going to find the chimera. I don't want to be here any longer than we have to." His brow was pinched and his eyes scanned the nearby houses with equal parts curiosity and disdain. Isis wondered why he had volunteered in the first place; what did her father know of him?

She, of course, understood her own reasoning to a certain extent. She had something to prove to her mother and father and herself, but her steps were also guided by more altruistic motivations. She was here for the humans who would bare the brunt of the damage if there wasn't someone looking out for their interest, to help her best friend avenge his father’s death, and to make sure those two goals didn't meet in opposition. 

She knew Tau had no care for the humans, but she couldn't entirely blame him. If something happened to someone that dear to her, she was sure she would search to the ends of all worlds until she found the creature responsible and brought it to justice. She probably wouldn't care about anything else until she had found it.

Again, she hoped she would bring him to justice and not just exact revenge, but she also hoped she was never in a position where her true motivations came to light. She didn't know what she would do without her father. Even if he was harsh and stern, she knew he did so out of love and found him a worthy example to aspire to. 

But then there was Akil. In the dim lighting of the lamppost, his skin was translucent almost seeming to glow. He had sharp, pale blue eyes and a wide down-turned mouth . He had a thin and narrow face. Something about him didn't invite one to look into his eyes for very long. He just seemed to strip you bare with a single look and find you lacking. 

"Let's go." She looked around and again found no one around. Bending her legs, she launched herself into the sky. Her dark wings snapped out to catch the wind they responded easily to cool night air. She heard more than saw the other two follow her and she flapped her wings to gain more altitude. She looked over to see Tau following close behind. Akil was a little bit farther. 

The wind whistling in her ears made it difficult to exchange words, so she pointed to indicate that was where they would look first. She scanned the area with both her normal vision and her second sight, turning away from the more densely populated part of the city. 

Finding a darkened place to touch down, she landed heavily on the roof and folded her wings close to her body. She scanned the area one last time. Humans had a distinct energy signature, a soul, that lit up her mind's eye like a beacon. The area was devoid of that sense and she thought the place must be abandoned. 

"I think this is a good place, but we should look around first," she said when the other two dropped down beside her. They nodded and spread out. Akil went inside to see if anyone was lurking around. Humans weren't able to actively hide their energy signature, but if their souls were dark enough she might not have picked it up. 

"It's clear," Akil said, calling down from the lawn. Isis jumped down from the roof and landed on light feet next to him, not even needing to use her wings. Tau landed heavily beside her. She glanced up at him and noticed the curl of his lip as he surveyed the house. 

House was a generous description of the collection of firewood that retained the basic structure of shelter. Still, it was unoccupied and actually the best looking option of the number of condemned buildings that littered the area. And they just had to remember, they would be staying for very long anyway. 

Taking the lead, she pushed the door open. It creaked and a piece of the wood fell off and onto the floor, stirring up whirlwind of dust. Covering her mouth, she waited for the dust to settle before venturing down the hallway. She didn't know if it was fortunate or not that the previous owners had left all of their furniture behind, but the rooms were occupied with discarded couches and appliances. Like Akil had said, the place was empty of any life form bigger than her hand. 

"Help me clear a space," she said, motioning to a corner of the living room. "We just need some place to rest for when we're not searching."

Tau crossed his arms while Akil raked their surroundings with his sharp gaze. Neither one made to move closer. "This is a mission. Not a vacation," she snapped, rolling up her sleeves. "Surely you two have been to worst places," she said, gingerly grabbing onto the arm of an armchair and dragging it into the kitchen. 

"I wouldn't be so sure," Tau muttered under his breath, though she could still hear him. However when she turned back, they had moved to do as she said. She bit back a pleased smile and began to assist them. 

This was proof positive that she was no longer a princess. She could never imagine her mother stepping foot into a place like this, let alone moving stuff around in order to bed down for the night.

Still frowning, Tau kicked the couch across the room with a powerful kick. It skidded across the room, coming to a stop just shy of slamming into the wall.

"Careful," she hissed. They all held the breath, watching the ceiling as dust rained down and the shack groaned at the force. Finally, the house settled with an uneasy sigh. "Not even you would survive this place falling down around your ears," she finished with her own relieved exhale. He bared his teeth at her in irritation, but he was more careful moving the furniture so she didn't say anything about his disrespect. 

Soon they had a place cleared out and mostly cleared of dust as well and took a seat in their newly carved out shelter in the deteriorating house. She could see that both of them were down and she racked her brain for something to cheer them up. This was her first mission and she would rather her team didn't consider it one of their worst. 

Clearly, they needed to focus on the goal. The sooner they completed the mission the sooner they could go home. If they had a plan of attack, they would be that much more prepared and would be able to find the creature sooner rather than later. 

"So, how are we going to find it?" she asked. She kept her voice low for fear it would unsettle the gentle equilibrium the house had somehow established. The wind was blowing gently, but that was still enough to rattle the house.

"We search this wretched realm until we do," Tau said snidely. 

She frowned at him. He was terser here than back home. Perhaps he was just irritated about their accommodations, though it more likely had something to do with the nature of their mission. She softened her features and tried to be more understanding. His father murderer was loose and he was uncomfortable. 

"Of course, but we do need some sort of plan." She bit her lip to keep from saying anything more. She needed his help, but she wasn't going to beg for his cooperation. If he wanted to sulk, there wasn't anything she could do about it.

"I thought I might take an aerial view," Akil said, surfacing from wherever his thoughts had taken him. "I'm good with projection; I won’t have an issue with the humans spotting me."

"That's assuming these humans would even bother looking up,” Tau said under his breath.

She ignored him and summoned a smile. "That sounds like a good idea." Tau growled softly under his breath and turned away from the two of them. “I suppose the two of us will be hitting the ground then.” He didn't say anything. “Well, I’ll take the East side of town.” He remained silent. 

Snarling softly under her breath, she pulled her knees close to her chest and leaned back against the wall. Absently, she hoped that the wall wouldn't collapse under her weight. Feeling cold, she pulled her wings in close to her body. Earth was lonelier than she had thought it would. “Let’s get some sleep then. We've got a long day tomorrow.”


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four  
Isis strolled down the street, her projection an absent buzz in the back of her mind. She kept her wings tucked closely to her body; people might not be able to see them, but they would feel them. She did notice that whenever her wings brushed against one of them, they would just dismissed it as a figment of their imagination better than any projection she could have mustered. 

She tucked her hair behind her ear and stopped at the street corner. The foot traffic continued to flow around her, but she ignored it. She scanned the crowd though she didn't know what she was looking for. It would hardly be likely for the creature to be standing in the middle of the street, not harming anyone nor causing an alarm. 

She shielded her eyes from the sun. Being in the sunlight was affecting her more than she had thought it would. She felt the gaping bleakness in the pit of her stomach that marked a quickly approaching need to feed. It seemed the hunger had arrived the moment she had stepped onto the busy street with the sun beating down on her. Next time, they would have to change the search pattern to the night. The sunlight was debilitating. 

Her eyes alighted on a sign for visitors of the city. She needed to orient herself in the city if she hoped to efficiently search the city. The creature had awoken, something had awoken it, so she was sure there would be some kind of notice. Would the chimera go to the most densely populated areas or pick people off from the periphery. She should probably check the most heavily occupied areas first and work her way out.

Springwood College of Arts  
Springwood Shopping District  
Springwood County Library 

Breath catching, her hand paused over the white lettering. She slid her fingers across to the arrow pointing to the left. Of course. It should have been her first suggestion. The chimera’s awakening had shook the foundations of her world; there would have to be signs of the creature's appearance. She would find it at the library. 

If she remembered correctly, they had the Internet there, free for anyone to use. She wasn't sure what exactly the Internet was, but she wasn’t sure anyone really knew. She had heard people discussing it often and she knew it had all the answers. 

She fought to keep the grin from her face as she walked swiftly down the street, easily weaving in and out of the crowds of people until she came upon the place that boldly announced itself as the library. She marched up the stairs and flung open the door. Stepping into the darkened interior, she halted in the doorway, suddenly feeling unsure. 

The entry chamber was empty and there was an settled hush across the room. Was it open? Had she inadvertently broken into the library. She took a step back and bumped into something. Whirling around, she saw a kid looking bewildered. His gaze drifted over her head and she quickly strengthened her projection. 

The confusion slipped from his face and he scowled at her. "Out of the way," he snapped. He stomped past her and she let his disrespect go. Instead, she took the opportunity to follow him. She didn't know how things worked, so it was best to emulate someone who did. He walked through another set of doors. 

Through that portal, she found that the library was indeed inhabited. There weren’t a lot of people, but there was enough that she thought there should be more sound coming from them. She hadn't known humans were capable of such quiet. She stood there, staring, for so long that her unknowing guide managed to disappear. 

She swept her gaze across the room and found a collection of Internets in the middle of the room in a square. She took a step toward them. "Can I help you?" Startled once again, she whipped around, reaching for the pocket of time and space where she housed her scythe. The little old lady drew back just as quickly as Isis, hands flying to her ample chest. Easing back from her defensive stance, Isis straightened her jacket and dropped her hands by her side. 

Ah, exactly what she was looking for. Someone in a place of authority. She was standing behind a desk with gold, wire-rimmed glasses perched on the end of her upturned nose. "I’m sorry,” the woman said, primly arranging her hands on the desk. “I didn't mean to startle you,

"It is quite all right," Isis said with a wave of her hand. Pulling her hair over her shoulder, she approached the desk with confident strides. The woman drew back farther; did she subconsciously consider Isis a threat? "I do require assistance." 

"Oh," the woman said, flattening her hand against her chest. Isis could see the blue veins running across the back of her hand. Her face was heavily lined and her eyes were watery and washed out, such that Isis couldn't tell what their original color might have been.

The woman stepped forward, visibly getting control of herself. Isis could practically see the thoughts running through her mind, laughing off whatever fear she thought she’d felt from Isis. What had she to be scared of from this young girl? To the human eye, Isis looked no more than twenty and yet she was older than this frail, elderly woman. 

"Yes, dear. That’s what I’m here for.” Chuckling softly, she reached across the desk to pat Isis on the back of her hand, her hand slightly shaking. She smiled and the lines around her eyes deepened. "What can I help you with?"

"I require access to the Google," Isis said. The woman blinked at her and she worried she might have worded it wrong. "The Internets," she said, waving her hand to the collection of them behind her. "I was told that the library had free access to them."

Still blinking rapidly, the woman reached up to adjust her eyewear and glanced behind Isis to where she had indicated. She made a sound in the back of her throat and straightened. "You, young people and your computers. Can't go a day without hooking up to the Internet, yeah?" She sounded like she was chastising Isis, but her eyes were kind. "Of course, I can help you with that." 

She tottered from around the desk, pushing open a swinging door that separated her from the rest of those in the library. There was a step that Isis hadn't noticed and when the woman stepped down, she seemed to decrease in size. "Right this way." Isis followed mutely behind the wispy little woman. "Do you have a library card?" she asked, glancing behind her.

Isis shook her head. "I am just visiting." 

The woman closed one eye at her, pulling out a chair. "I could tell. Where are you from? I don't recognize that accent." Isis stared at her. She could tell she wasn't from the area. The woman clicked her teeth and shook her head. "Never mind, dear. Have a seat," she said, motioning at the chair. 

Isis sat and stiffened when the seat rolled back. She looked down and discovered there were wheels on the chair. Why would the humans need chairs that rolled. While the wheel was surely a useful invention, did it need to be on everything. When she sat back up, she discovered the woman was looking at her tenderly. She drew back from the look in her eyes. 

"You must really be far from home." She patted Isis's cheek and Isis had to force herself not to react. Her whole body thrummed with tension. "Not to worry.” She was speaking slowly, looking Isis in the eyes and nodding a lot. Humans were the strangest creatures on all the worlds. “If you need any help getting around, you just ask for Miss Marge, you hear?" 

She continued to regard her with affection until Isis nodded her understanding. She had no intention of asking for Miss Marge even if she was stranded and the other woman was the only one around for leagues.

"All right. I'm just going to set you up on this computer," she said, typing something into the 'computer.' And the screen changed. Isis watched it with wide eyes. Fascinating. "And if you click right there," she said, pointing to a little symbol, "that will pull up your internet." The screen changed again.

"The Google," Isis exclaimed. The woman frowned at her and she realized that she had been speaking very softly up to that point. Her exclamation had garnered some attention and she realized that perhaps it was an unwritten rule that the library was quiet.

She inclined her head to the woman. "My apologies," she said.

The woman nodded approvingly and motioned back to the screen. "Yes. All you have to do is type in what you are looking for and it should pop up on the screen. Understand?" Isis nodded again. “"That pretty much covers it," Marge said, straightening up with a creak of old and worn bones. "Was there anything else you needed help with?"

"Not at the moment. Thank you for your kindness and assistance." 

The woman giggled like a woman a quarter of her age and patted her cheek again. "Aren't you sweet. Remember, just ask for Miss Marge if you have anymore questions. I'll take care of you, hon. You hear?" 

Isis smiled her acquiescence and waited until Marge moved away before beginning her search for the chimera. She thought with some completely inappropriate glee that Tau must be walking up and down the streets, trying to find some clue about the whereabouts of the creature while she had access to the all-knowing Google. 

Then again, it was just as likely that he was grabbing some poor soul off the street and compelling them to tell him all they knew. She frowned. If he was doing that, then it would only be a matter of time before they were discovered. Surely, he wouldn’t be so reckless and at the moment there was nothing she could do about it.The faster they found the creature, the quicker she could get Tau away from the vulnerable humans. She scanned the keyboard and started to type, one letter at a time. 

Horrifying creature attacks.  
Strange creature attacks.  
Unknown creature attacks.  
Soulless bodies.  
Soul sucker.  
Monster sucker. She backspaced quickly, eyes widening at the lewd results that popped up on the screen. Another result of the human mortality. They were obsessed with procreation and the act that came with it. The Google was a scary place. 

She tapped her chin, trying to think of other ways to word her question. She repeated the search, but focused on the place called Virginia. And yet it still it gave her no viable results. Her hand clenched into a tight fist and her breathing grew shallow. Face warm with frustration, she reigned in her temper. She needed to focus on the task at hand. It wasn’t supposed to be simple.

What did she know? Humans were scarily focused on the terrible disasters that befell them. So, if the humans weren’t reporting the attacks, that had to mean either they weren’t happening or anyone who saw anything was immediately consumed. Was it even possible that the chimera wasn’t attacking? 

She then started searching for just information about the creature. Perhaps someone had seen it from afar. It would explain why they had survived. She continued to type before one of the images that popped up snagged her attention. 

Frowning, she clicked on it. It was a beautiful picture, rendered in black and white. From the shadows, she could clearly see it. Someone had taken a close picture of the creature. She clicked a link to take her to the original site and discovered dozens of photographs. Many were of the same decrepit building, but it was only from a certain angle that the creature was revealed in the depths. 

Who was this person? In the corner of the photograph there was a signature. After a moment of puzzling over it, she was able to guess a name: Draven Kim. Going back to the Google, she typed in the name and the area and discovered just one person. 

And it had an address for where she could find. She stared at it. Could it really be that easy to find someone? It even had a map. She could request directions to his location. She quickly exited out of the omniscient Google, worried that it would be able to tell her location as well.

After closing out all of the programs, Isis got to her feet. Before she approached this sanctuary to find this Draven Kim, she needed to eat. Walking away from the Internet, she headed toward the books. 

Books. She loved them and almost felt it would be sacrilegious to eat while she was there, but she thought it would be a quiet, private place for her to feed. She could feel the hunger gnawing at her insides and increased her speed. She stalked the shelves, looking for a lone bookworm. 

She finally found him, the boy who had come in with her. He didn't glance up from the book he was perusing when she strode down the aisle toward him. She walked past him and checked that they weren't in view of anyone else. She approached him from behind on light feet. Leaning in close, she whispered into his ear, injecting a hint of compulsion into her voice. "Don't move." 

He stiffened, but didn't move or shout, his head still bowed over the book. "You will not feel, hear, see or smell anything for the next ten minutes and you will not remember this lapse. You are safe. There's nothing to worry about." 

The tension drained out of his body and she wrapped her hands around his shoulder. Leaning him back, she tilted his head to the side and looked at the faintly throbbing pulse beneath his thin layer of skin. Her teeth elongated and she gently pierced the skin. 

He shuddered, but didn't move. She could imagine the glaze look in his eyes as she sipped at the blood welling up from the wound. After a few minutes, she pulled away enough to lap at the broken skin to encourage healing. She didn't take much, just enough to take the edge off of her hunger. She wiped her mouth of any traces of blood and quickly stepped away from him. "Go back to reading," she suggested and he lifted the book to his eyes and did as she compelled. 

It wasn't necessary to take a lot of blood from their chosen mark. It was easy to fall into the habit of overindulging, but they weren't here to gorge themselves. The humans needed a lot more of their own blood to survive than they did. 

It was only on Earth that they needed to consume blood at all. There was something about the essence of the Earth that caused her people to deteriorate. They needed human essence to stay on the humans' world. The blood was the best way to get that essence and it was easier to regulate the consumption than taking the essence straight from the human. 

The human's body gave signals when it was in danger of blood loss and they could reign themselves back in. She glanced back at the boy. Except for him now leaning against the bookshelf, he looked none the worse for wear. It was overindulgence that brought her people to the attention of the humans, but she knew she had maintained her cover.

Nodding to herself, she strolled toward the exit. Miss Marge made a sound and looked like she was going to get up. Isis waved her back down and quickly exited the library. Outside, she rolled her shoulders. Her shoulders were getting stiff from holding her wings so closely to her body, but she needed to hold it together for a little longer. Just until she had spoken to the Draven Kim.

Speaking of which, she needed to tell Tau and Akil. She hesitated, reviewing the location in her mind. Technically, it was in the East area of the city. She didn’t fully trust Tau to be subtle in interrogating this Draven Kim. Perhaps it would be best for her to get a location from him first and then she could tell the others where to find the chimera.


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five  
Draven's feet were dragging as he forced himself up the stairs. He'd been gone since eight that morning and he was completely drained. He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. Perhaps it wouldn’t have felt like such an awful day if he hadn't also felt like it was total waste of time. 

He had had two interviews and one had flat out told him they were going with another applicant. The other hadn't looked particularly interested in anything he had said. Then he had taken his resume around the city. Most of the places had told him they weren't looking for new employees at the moment. A couple did take his resume, but he didn't see employment in his near future.

He pushed open the door from the stairwell and stepped out into the hallway. It was empty except for a woman. He didn’t usually take note of people, but something caught his attention. Perhaps it was how she looked, but more likely it was because she was standing in front of his door. He frowned, looking her over, and tried to place her. He couldn’t; if he had seen her, he’d definitely have remembered her. 

She had the kind of face that one didn't quickly forget. Her face was round and her nose was a delicate bump in the middle of her face. She was tall and elegant. She was wearing tight dark jeans and a black halter top shirt that just brushed the edge of her pants. Something about her bared back seemed strange, like he couldn’t quite see it which was weird. She seemed to have no color to her features, which made her black hair stand out that much more. It was a pitch black that you didn't see too often, at least not out of a bottle and yet it didn't seem to be dyed. 

He approached slowly. His breath caught when her eyes flickered over him. It was like being raked over a bed of coals. Scorching hot, despite the coolness in her pale gray eyes. Her lips were a pale pink and he was struck by her features.

She wasn't wearing make-up. Her beauty was a natural sort. Something you didn't see very often. 

He felt the rare urge to capture her image. Sometimes he got the strange desire to take pictures of people. It might be a old and withered old man who seemed such a part of the bench he was sitting on. Or it could be a young woman dancing in a puddle as though she didn't care that anyone could see her acting like a child. It wasn't often that he was struck by the natural artistry in people. He thought it was very few people who had that natural essence of beauty. 

He'd much rather take pictures of ruined buildings. His small following seemed to enjoy those pictures more. He rarely got comments on the pictures of people and sometimes, he really needed to hear from people that they enjoyed his work. 

The pictures of people were just for him and he didn't often feel the need to take a picture just for himself. But this woman brought out that need.

She blinked and he was released from the spell of her presence. She pushed away from the wall, a tight-lipped smile spreading across her face. He frowned at the intent look in her eyes. "Are you lost?" He gestured to the door behind her. "This is my apartment." 

"I am not lost," she said in a light voice that oddly caressed the words. "I have been looking for you, Draven Kim." Draven hesitated, dropping his bags to the floor. He was hesitant to let her in. "I found you with the Google," she said like that would assure him. He looked her over again. She didn't look like she could be a serial killer. A stalker? He had never had a stalker before.

"That doesn't make me feel better," he said. It's not like he could afford to move either. 

Her lips parted with shock and her eyes widened. "I did not mean to make you feel bad," she said, hands reaching out to him. "I am in need of your help, Draven Kim."

"It's just Draven," he said.

"Draven." 

The way she said his name was inexplicable. "Great," he said, looking away from her. His face felt hot. "What do you want. And who are you?"

"Oh. My apologies. I am Isis." She held out her hand, looking strange and a bit uncomfortable. She held her hand out oddly, like she wasn't sure of what she was doing. He took her hand in his. Her long fingers wrapped around his palm. Her hands were cold. He was reluctant to let go. Despite the coolness, there was something comfortable about her grip. When he did loosen his grip, her soft hand slipped from his grasp and tugged at the bottom of her shirt. 

"I saw your picture on the Google and I had to speak to you." So, definitely a stalker. He walked around her to stick his key in the door. Probably crazy too. "You had the image of the creature. You saw it." He stiffened, not daring to move. "You were not harmed?" she asked. He could feel her gaze on him.

"No. I wasn't." He turned around to fully face her. She was closer than he before and he longed to put more space between them. Her whole body seemed to radiate a coldness, like a darkly beautiful ice sculpture. "But you know what it was. What I saw. I," He looked down at the ground and started pacing length in front of his doorway. 

"I haven't told anyone what I saw. Just put that stupid picture on the Internet for some reason, but I never actually told anyone about it. They wouldn't believe me. I wouldn't believe me and I actually have photographic evidence of it." He threw his hands up. "Can you imagine? It was some creature straight out of the movies. Hell, I don't even know what it was." He stopped walking and faced her again. "But you do, don't you. What was it? I have to know."

Her face softened and she grasped his hands in his. "I do know what it was, but I am afraid I cannot tell you. I am sorry that you had to see it. It was not meant to come here. It was supposed to stay safely locked away. If you tell me where it is you saw it, I will take it away so that it harms no one. I am glad you were not injured in your encounter."

Pulling his hand from hers, Draven dropped his gaze to the carpet and turned her words over in his mind. She couldn't tell him what it was and she was going to lock it away. Sudden realization caused his head to jerk up. His action caused her to cant her head to the side. 

"You’re with the government, aren't you?" A small frown furrowed between her sharp eyebrows and she pinched her pink mouth together, but didn't say anything. Of course. "I guess you can't tell me that either, can you." After a moment, she shook her head again. He crossed his arms. "Well, I don't know why I should help you. What do I get out of it?"

Her dark, thin eyebrows arched upwards. "What would you like out of it?" she asked.

"I want to know what I'm helping you find." She frowned gently at him and he sighed. "Fine. What about," he shrugged, "money. How about some monetary compensation." That really should have been his first choice, but he’d honestly’d have prefered to have his curiosity assuaged. Of course, she shook her head again. He sighed in disgust. "Then what can you offer me?"

"My apologies," she said, pinching her lips together. "I cannot give you anything of value, but I do need your assistance on finding it before it harms anybody."

He rolled his shoulders and looked away from her imploring, gray eyes. When she put it like that, he sounded like an ass for thinking of himself. "I really need a job though." The corners of her lips twitched down; she looked so disappointed in him, that he had to add. "But I'll help. Obviously." He pushed his hands through his hair, looking away from the brilliant smile she graced him with. "But on one-two conditions." 

Her guarded look returned. "What are they?"

"I get to take a picture of you," he said, motioning to the camera bag he had around his neck. Honestly, he didn't know why he asked, but once the words were out of his mouth, he didn't want to take them back. This was another thing that he was going to have a hard time believing happened to him and he wanted photographic evidence that it had happened. 

He didn't make a habit of photographing living creatures, but he wanted to be able look at her sometime down the road. Perhaps when he was living on the streets, trying to make a living off of his photography major. Narrowing her eyes, she tilted her head to the side as she studied the camera. He tried to read the thoughts behind her pale eyes. 

Finally, she looked back up at him and nodded. "That would be satisfactory. What is your second condition?"

"I want to go with you."

Her eyebrows snapped down and she scowled at him. "That would not be satisfactory. It is dangerous. You've seen the creature for yourself. It would not do for you to put yourself in danger again. I will take care of it myself." 

She held herself like she was perfectly capable of defending herself. Her shoulders were straight and her chin was held stiffly at an angle. Confident, but not arrogant. Her back was rigid and she spoke with quiet assurance. He had no doubt that she would be able to handle it. She probably had a squadron of goons with lots of guns to back her up. But that wasn't why he wanted to go. "I have-I need to see it again. With my own eyes. I just almost can't believe that it even exists."

She opened her mouth to say 'no.' He could see it in her eyes, so he beseeched her one last time. "Please. I deserve that much don't I? I'll stay back. I'll let you and whatever agents you bring along to do all the heavy lifting. Trust me, I don't want to get involved with this thing again. I just want to see. To know that it was real. That I didn't dream it. That I'm not crazy. Please." He hated to beg, but when she uncrossed her arms and looked away from him, he knew he had won.

"All right. Just stay back." He nodded quickly. "And once you see it, you head back home. There will be no lingering. We need to get the creature away from the city as soon as possible." He nodded again. All of her stipulations were things he would be more than happy to comply with. He wasn't lying. Just seeing the creature in the flesh, not some picture he managed to snap, but physically before his eyes was all he needed. "How will we get there?" she asked.

"Do you have a car?" She shook her head and he resisted the urge to sigh. What government agency didn't give their operatives cars? "I'll guess we take the bus." He looked at his watch. "We can catch the bus out there if we hurry. That's okay?"

She nodded. "That will be adequate. Let us go."

He made a face and grabbed his things from the floor. "Sure. Let us go." He motioned down the hallway, but she didn't move until he did. He shook his head. Weird. Pretty, but definitely weird.

...

Isis sat on the very edge of the seat. Her wings shivered against the tight confines of the bus as it rattled along the street. She was not a fan of the bus and she could guess that Draven Kim was not either. 

He was a strange one. She couldn't really get a read on him, but her interaction with him felt less stilted than what she had endured at the hands of Miss Marge. He was also physically very different from her as well. 

Of course, he was young and male, but the differences went deeper. He had black hair spiked up to the side with purple tips. He also had metal piercings in his eyebrows and lip. They didn't look like they pained him. Perhaps they were just decorations, like the face paint the women wore. He was dressed completely in black and his eyes were narrow and almond shaped.

The curtain of her hair fell over her shoulder as she leaned forward to study him closely. His eyes were a really dark brown. They were focused out the window, watching the scenery pass by, but she could see his eyes flickering from side to side in the reflection of the mirror. The sun would be setting soon and she once again reconsidered calling in Tau and Akil for assistance. 

Once the sun was down, there was no doubt the nocturnal creature would be ready to attack. And yet, she knew they would not have capitulated to Draven's request. Perhaps he made her soft, but she really understood his plea. He was a human trying to understand the world he found himself in.

She could tell that by how he held himself and what he said, but also by his captured images. They were beautiful, depicting the once astounding nature of these forgotten buildings. She could almost imagine he saw himself as one of those abandoned buildings. 

To say humans were supposed to be so aware of time, they let things go quite easily. They were easily distracted by the newest thing and allowed the others to become old and decrepit. It did wonders for their technological advancements, but there were negative consequences to their capriciousness. Had someone bee cared for Draven only to allow themselves to be distracted by the next shiny object? It was sad to think about. 

"Do I have something on my face?" Isis was pulled from her thoughts by Draven's question. He turned around to glare at her and he held himself very stiffly, like he didn’t dare move. 

She frowned slightly and flickered her eyes over his face, trying to determine his mood and the cause for it. "You have the metal..." She lifted her hand to his face to indicted the decorations.

He jerked back from her touch and she curled her hands together away from his face. "Yeah, my piercings. Whatever. Why do you keep staring at me?"

"Am I making you uncomfortable?"

He swallowed thickly and looked away from her eyes. The skin of his face and down his neck turned red as the blood rushed forward. Was it a physiological response to his discomfort? "Yes. Just." He glanced out the window and exhaled loudly. "We're here," he said, sounding light and possibly relieved. 

He lifted his hand to tug on a low-hanging rope. Something dinged near the front of the bus. Her hands flew up to brace against the seat in front of her when when the vehicle began to slow down. Isis let out her own sigh of relief at the bus came to a stop. When the doors opened, Isis quickly moved to the front and hopped onto the ground. 

She stepped away from the bus so that she would hit Draven when she stretched out her wings. Never again, never again would she ride the bus. How could Draven ride it, she would never understand. Perhaps, it was one of those thing where humans just got used to. Well, she had no intention of becoming acclimated to the bus.

"Where to now?" Isis asked when Draven came to step beside him. Draven looked up over her head and she could have sworn he was staring at her wings. She quickly tucked them back close to her body and pointed down the road. "Is it that way?" she asked to distract him.

He blinked, once, twice, and shook his head. "Yeah." He frowned up over her head again, before walking in the direction she had pointed. "Yeah," he said again, "it's in that direction. Let's go." He seemed reluctant to dismiss what he saw. So unlike others. What a mystery.

When he was a few paces ahead of her, she strode swiftly to close the distance. She didn't want him to be alone with the chimera for even a moment, even if he was relatively safe during the day. The sunlight was quickly tracking toward the horizon. "It's not too much farther," he said, glancing at her. "You’re all right?"

She shrugged. "I am fine." She might have been used to flying everywhere on her homeworld, but her work with the warriors had increased her stamina. She would be all right. She looked at Draven though. A light sheen of sweat covered his face; he must be used to alternate means of transportation than walking, like her.

And she doubted that he was a part of any group of warriors to give him any reserves of strength to call upon. "Are you?" she asked. He didn't answer, just waved her concern away with a flick of his hand. When he started to slow down, she worried the walk was too much. 

"So," Draven said after a few minutes of silence. She looked at him to indicate for him to go on. He was still nervously toying with his camera. He lifted his eyes skyward. She followed his gaze and made a mental note of how much time they would have before she would need Draven to leave to protect him from the beast. 

Would he be angry if she sent him away and he hadn't yet seen the creature. Or would he understand. Did he know the creature was nocturnal? Was that how he had escaped unscathed the first time he had encountered it? 

"Where’s your back-up?" he asked. Her eyes widened and she twisted her head to look at him. How could he know about Tau and Akil? "I mean, obviously you're not here by yourself." He continued to scan the sky, not noticing the look she was giving him. 

"Are they going to repel out of the sky when you call?" His eyebrows pinched together and he finally looked at her. "You aren't allowing me to take you to a remote part of the city so your government goons can silence me, are you? Like some kind of government cover up."

Her eyes flickered close and she sighed in relief. He didn't know. Of course, he didn't. How could he? His mind was just supplying information, trying to fill in the gaps of the mystery that was her. "No, ah, no goons." He looked unconvinced. "How was I to know you were taking me to a remote part of the city? You could have just as easily led me to a heavily occupied part." His eyebrows lifted as he mulled over her words. "And do not fear. I have no intention of engaging the creature. This is just reconnaissance."

"Oh." He looked relieved and she was relieved that she had said something that he understood. "Makes sense. We're almost here. Should be just around this street corner," he said, motioning ahead of them. It was a deserted neighborhood they found themselves walking on. They strolled down the middle of the street without fear for the many automobiles they humans used to get around of hitting them. They were the only one for miles.

His eyes flickered over the area. There were a few abandoned houses and she hoped he hadn't led her in the wrong direction or that he had forgotten in which direction he was supposed to go. "Yeah, yeah. I think." He stopped. 

She tensed and scanned the area. She didn't feel anything though. "Here?" she asked, glancing at him. He nodded, but still looked unsure. Isis closed her eyes and tried to remember anything about the house she had seen in the picture. When she opened her eyes, she tried to match it to what she saw in the neighborhood, but failed. 

She opened her mouth to question him further, but he shook his head and started to slowly spin in a circle. "This is the area. I'm positive. And..." He stopped and pointed. "That's where the house had been." 

She turned around and only saw a pile of rubble. "That's where it was, I'm sure. I..." He lifted his hands to his camera and started to play around with it, turning it over in his hands. "I was sure." She didn't say anything, just crossed to where he indicated. Could he have been wrong? She approached the rubble and kicked at it with her booted feet.

Her feet shifted more rubble and she crouched down. Pulling off her gloves, she pushed her hands into the ground and tried to feel the chimera’s presence. Draven seemed sure this was the place and she had no choice but to trust him. She had no other leads on the whereabouts of the chimera. 

Closing her eyes, she stretched out her senses. If the creature had been there, it would have left a mark, though it might be a faint signal if most of its time was spent sleeping. Keeping her eyes tightly closed, she sifted through the myriad of energies around the places, so much considering the place was supposed to be abandoned. 

There. She could feel it. At one point it had been there. This was the right place. She stood up and tensed when she heard a click sound. Her hand twitched for her scythe before she remembered her companion. She turned around to see Draven pulling his camera down from his face. He looked at her briefly and away. "Sorry if this is the wrong place," he said, shifting his feet from side to side. "Maybe we made a wrong turn or-"

"No," she said, cutting him off. She didn’t want him to doubt himself. "This was the right place. Thank you. It was here at one point. I will just have to determine where it went from here."

Draven made a face and started to look around. "So this thing's just wandering around. And no one has noticed? It was like pretty big. I think." He frowned. "I don't really remember it that well. I just have my photographs and they aren't completely reliable. The angle was all wrong." 

His voice trailed off and he began to turn his camera over in his hand. Unsure of how to reassure him further, Isis returned her attention to the rubble. She started to walk around it; it was a rather large pile. The house must have been magnificent at one point and then it was just forgotten as time went on.

She moved around the side of the house, toward what would have been the backyard all the while to the soundtrack of Draven taking pictures of her. She could imagine what Tau or her parents would say about that. 

Proof of their existence would only bring destruction. She should never have agreed to his photography session. She should never have allowed him to come along with her, but she knew she had made the right decision. If Tau had been there when Draven had proposed his conditions, he would have forced Draven to give them the location. This was much better. 

She crouched down again and flattened her hand against the ground. She rocked back on her heels and had to use her other hand to catch herself. She covered her eyes with her hand and bit her lip. Here. The creature had been standing here, awake. It was definitely the right place. She just needed to get Tau and Akil to help her track it down. 

"Hey." She looked up at Draven's soft voice. He was standing over her, camera forgotten, looking worried. "Are you all right?" She blinked and her eyes widened. She was still looking with the second sight and she could see Draven's spirit, his soul. It was bright and strong and as pure as any human she had ever seen. She squeezed her eyes shut against the brightness and returned to her normal vision. "Isis?" 

"I am fine," she said, allowing her to help her stand. "Thank you for the concern."

"You sure?" She nodded and he dropped her hand. His hand fiddled with his camera. "One more picture?" What more could he need? Still, she nodded her acquiescence and waited. He lifted the device to his eye and snapped the picture. She blinked at the sudden flash of light and shook her head to rid her eyes of the bright spots across her vision. "Thanks." He looked down at the timepiece strapped to his wrist. "We should go if we want to catch the bus back into town."

She made a face and turned away. "That is quite all right. I think I will stay a bit longer. I need to call my comrades to help find where the creature has gone, but you should go."

"How will you get back?" She mulled the question over, wondering what she could tell him, but her silence seemed to be answer enough. "Ah, another one of those things you can't say, right?" He looked down at his feet then back up at her. "So, I guess this is goodbye."

"Yes. Goodbye, Draven. I feel honored to have met you today," she said, inclining her head to him. She could almost imagine her mother's outrage at the show of respect to a human.

"Yeah, you too. Isis." He snorted and shook his head. "I bet that's some kind of codename, isn't it? Isis. Well, it was nice meeting you." He hesitated before sticking his hand out. She felt more sure in accepting it and shaking it than she had in offering it when they had first met. 

He shrugged his backpack onto his shoulder and started to head back down the street. She watched him go. At the juncture, before he turned onto the other street, he looked back. He lifted his hand. She returned the gesture with a smile. And then he was out of sight. 

Something heavy landed behind her.


	6. Chapter Six

Crouching down, Isis pulled out her dagger and whipped around. Her long black hair fluttered over her shoulder. Tau lifted his hands and cocked his eyebrow at her. Swearing softly underneath her breath, she straightened from her defensive crouch and glared at him. "You seem a little jumpy," he said with a tight smile.

She rolled her shoulders and tried to dismiss the tension rolling through her body. "What are you doing here?"

He scowled at her and crossed his arms. "I should be asking you that. I saw you. With that human," he spat. "I thought we were supposed to be a team. That we were supposed to find the creature that killed my father and yet here you are without Akil or myself.”

"I know. I'm sorry if it seems like I abandoned you, but I didn't intend for it to appear that way.” A mistake already? No, this was the right course of action. She did not believe Tau would have been able to convince Draven the way she had been able to.

He inclined his head in the direction that Draven had gone. “How did that human know where the chimera was?"

Shaking her head, she lifted her hands and began saying, “Draven-" His eyebrows shot up and she quickly corrected with, "The human.” He watched her closely like he was trying to see if she would make another mistake.

"The human saw the creature not too long ago. He was able to lead me to its location. I’m trying to determine in which direction it had gone before I went to get you and Akil. There was no time to find you two as well as have him lead me to the chimera’s former location all before sundown." She pointed to upward to indicate the rapidly darkening sky.

He slowly uncrossed his arms, but still said, "You should have contacted us.”

She shrugged. "Well, what's done is done. There's no use dwelling on it." She rested her fisted hands on her hips and shifted her foot to crush a chunk of rubble underneath it. "This is where the creature was hidden. Something must have woken it up and it destroyed this house." She remembered the image of the picture beforehand. "Not that it needed much work. It was already a house of cards, ready to be knocked over."

Tau’s nose wrinkled and he cast a disparaging look over the remains. “Evidently.”

"I've been able to get a sense the chimera’s energy signature. I should be able to trace it." She looked up at the quickly fading sun. "But you should go find Akil." He cleared his throat before she could continue. "What?" she asked, looking up from the rubble.

He was scowling again. What had she said now? And if this was indicative of their ability to work together it might be better if they didn't do missions together in order to maintain their friendship.

"You're doing it again,” he said through clenched teeth. “You'll have me run after Akil while you find and destroy the creature and then get all the credit."

She gaped at him. "That's not what I want at all."

"I will not stand by idly by while you take the creature. It is mine!" She was taken aback by the venom in his voice. He seemed to barely reign in his temper. "That thing killed my father and it is my duty to destroy it."

"Have you forgotten our purpose here," she snapped. She would not allow him to make her feel bad. She stepped close to him, so that he would realize he had overstepped his bounds. "We are not here to destroy it. We need to find it and take it back home. I don't care how you feel about the humans, but those are our orders from the king. Remember that."

He looked away from her. "It killed my father."

She sighed and closed her eyes. She lifted a hand to comfort him, but aborted the motions, letting her hand fall uselessly by her side. "I know. I'm sorry." An uncomfortable silence settled between them. "We need to trace it, before it decides to attack any humans," she said, shaking of her discomfort. "I'll follow the signature."

His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t contradict her orders. She exhaled softly, wondering if she would regret her decision, before saying, "You can come with me, in case I run into it, but keep an eye out for Akil. We'll need his help with this as well."

He nodded stiffly. Eager to retreat from the unpleasantness that marked their conversation, Isis crouched down and laid her hands against the ground to reestablish her connection to the creature's signature. She opened her eyes, knowing they must be blazing and scanned the ground.

After a brief search, she was able to locate the trail and began following it. It was slow going and she really thought Tau's time could be better spent finding Akil, but he stayed by her side. The trail went everywhere. Down the road that she had come from and then farther. It went back into the city. As the sun dipped ever closer to the horizon, she knew she was running out of time.

After some hesitation, she took to the skies. She wouldn't be able to fly very high if she wanted to keep track of the trail, so she had to rely on Tau to keep them concealed. A glance back revealed a concentrated look on his face, so she could only assume he was keeping up with his end.

They searched for hours.

A few hours into the hunt, they ran into Akil. He looked vaguely irritated to learn they had begun without him, but fell in line without a word to add his projection to Tau's. She felt more secure, knowing he was assisting Tau in concealing her, but that didn't stop the burgeoning worry.

[Her eyesight was starting to shake from the extended focus with the second sight and still there was no indication that they were closing in on their prey. The path it was taking was sprawling. No discernible rhyme or reason. And the only indication of its presence was its energy signal. There was no path of destruction as she expected with the chimera. She dropped down to a tall building to rest for a moment.](http://fav.me/d6tajzm)

[Akil and Tau joined her, landing slightly behind. Akil took a step toward her and she tilted her head to the side to indicate she was listening. "Am I to assume that you have found some trail of the creature even though there is no worldly evidence of its passing?" His gray wings were pale and thin, practically translucent from the moonlight shining through them, as he stretched them out behind him.](http://fav.me/d6tajzm)

She shoved her hair out of her face and rubbed her eyes with her fingers, trying to exorcise her irritation before she spoke. They couldn’t see the energy signatures as easily as she could. "I've got the trace for it, yes, but I can't tell where it's going. It's all over the place and it doesn't seem to have a destination in mind.” She turned around to face her comrades. “I can’t understand why it doesn't seem to be destroying anything, just wandering around, but that’s what’s happening."

Nodding, Akil shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "I see," he said unhelpfully. Tau snorted and crossed his arms. Akil scanned the area, though she didn't know what he was looking for. "Could it..." he said in a small voice, like he was thinking out loud. "Perhaps it has found a prey."

"A prey?" She frowned at him. "It's a monster. Anything and everything is it's prey."

“It’s not actually a monster-” was as far as he got before Tau stepped forward and grabbed Akil's arm tight enough that Isis winced.

He pulled Akil around to look the shorter man in the eye. "Do you know something about this creature? And you haven't..."

Akil's mouth thinned and he yanked his hand from Tau’s grip. “I haven’t what?’ he said, wings snapping angrily behind him. He glanced to Isis. She lifted her hand and Tau balled his hand into a fist, but took a reluctant step backward. Akil rubbed his arm, scowling at Tau.

"I volunteered to come for this very reason. To offer my knowledge on the chimera. When the creature first attacked, fifty years ago, I had just joined the ranks of the warrior. They didn't let me out to fight, but after it disappeared I made it my goal to learn everything possible about it in case it should arise again. There's not a lot, but I dredged up some information."

"Great," Tau said. "Care to share it with us?"

"Like I said, there isn't lot of information that isn't already known." His lip curled and turned away from Tau. She nodded encouragingly at him. She risked alienating Tau, but if Akil had information that could shed light on the chimera’s whereabouts, then it was more pertinent to hear him out than to soothe Tau’s ruffled feelings.

"After extensive research, I was able to find some mostly forgotten lore in the back of the library. The chimera’s name, _kjoloch riskalja_ , means devourer of souls. Besides the obvious meaning, the beast has a habit of bonding with it's prey before it devours it. It will establish a connection between its chosen prey. This is usually not anything of note unless something happens to interrupt its feeding. If that should occur, it will not hunt another soul until it has feasted on its prey. Its, for lack of a better word, soulmate."

"Soulmate?" Isis repeated. "Like..."

"Yes. Apparently, that's where the term comes from. The one who will make it whole. Their match. Except, unlike how the term is used today, this beast devours its soulmate in order to become whole. It’s quite fascinating, though I’m not sure if this is the case.” He frowned in thought. “Where would the chimera have met another creature to establish this bond? The chimera doesn't always establish this bond. Usually, it goes on a rampage, devouring everything in it’s path as it did when-”

“We know how the chimera normally acts,” Isis interjected quickly before he could mention Tau’s father. By the curl of his lip, Tau still knew what Akil had almost said. “But this is obviously special circumstances, yes? If this is the case, we need to search for its intended prey and-”

"Then we can use it as bait and draw it out," Tau provided, a smile twisting his face. The first she had seen since they arrived and she hated to rip it from his lips. "That should be easier than looking for the chimera."

"Yes, that would most certainly work,” Akil said.

"No," Isis said, crossing her arms. They looked at her in surprise. "We aren't using some innocent for bait. If all we see is the creature's next meal when we find him, we'd be just as bad as the beast, ."

"We're not suggesting we allow it to eat him," Akil pointed out like that made it better.

Isis shook her head. "We aren't using him as bait. We're finding him and protecting him until we can complete our mission and find the chimera. If we can't do it without putting someone in danger then do we really deserve to be called warriors."

Tau pressed his lips together, clenching his hands into trembling fist. Akil made a contemplative sound, eyes unfocusing at her words. "We can do this," she said, smiling in a way she hoped encouraged them. She waved her hands at the city street below them. "We haven't been at it for a full day yet and we've already got the trail. Let's go before it finds its prey."

She turned around before they could respond and immersed herself in the second sight again. While it was a relief that they wouldn't have to work blindly, that Akil knew something about the creature, his knowledge revealed a timeline. If they didn't find the creature before it found its meal then not only would that innocent be killed, but then the creature would be free to go on a rampage.

"Do you know how its travelling?" she asked. "Is it hiding? Surely the humans would have had some kind of reaction if the chimera were stalking down the street."

"I don't think they can see it, or if they do they would chalk it up to a mistake. It's moving through the spirit world. It's like a warped spirit that has gained a physical form by the souls it has eaten. The more souls it eats, the bigger and stronger it will become. And if it devours a soul that it has a bond with..."

Isis blew her breath out loudly and pushed her hair over her shoulder. So if they failed to save the innocent, it would then kill freely and possibly be too powerful for them overcome. They would have to go home and get reinforcements. And by the time the returned, the creature could have consumed that many more souls. They would have to give the Earth up as a lost cause.

"And you didn't think to mention that when we could have brought more than three people along."

"Tau," she called, interrupting his tirade. "The king said only three of us could come. This information would not have changed it. It just means that we don't have a choice. We cannot fail." It was quiet behind her, so she chose to focus on her task.

She could see the lines where the creature was traveling. It emitted a dark light that somehow glowed in the night. The trail. Where was it going? There were areas where it stopped, linger for a few minutes before moving again so that it’s energy pooled on the ground. The patterns reminded her of something. Her eyes widened. The bus.

Draven was on the bus and his encounter with the creature might have been just enough for it to have bonded with him. She turned around, letting her vision settle again. “Find the bus. Number 13. The creature is following it.” She didn't allow them to protest before she was shooting up into the air, her wings snapping out behind her.

“Where are you going?” Tau called after her.

“I’m going to try to cut it off,” she called and swooped away.

...  
 _The world was painted in monochrome colors. Blobs of light bounded down the street. They were people, he knew, except they weren't. Also, they were dead, not that they looked it. He just knew. The same way he knew who he was, even though he didn't look like himself. Didn't feel like himself. A gaping loneliness guided his steps as much as the trail of spattered white across the ground did. The distance was heart-wrenching._

...  
Heart pounding, Draven shoved the bedcovers away from his sweat-soaked body and frantically sucked in air. It took him a moment to orient himself back in his room, not roaming the streets looking for something. Groaning, he flopped back on the bed and slowed his breathing. Just a nightmare.

One he couldn't even explain, but that seemed to be his lot in life lately. He knew if he tried to explain the nightmare to someone else it wouldn't seem half so terrifying, just confusing. He was overreacting.

He shivered, but kicked his covers to the foot of the bed. His hands were still shaking. There was no going back to sleep for him. He glanced out the window. The streets were empty, but it was also 3 o'clock in the morning. Rolling off the bed, he crossed the room to check the lock on his front door and snorted at his paranoia.

If the creature was stalking him, it would hardly be deterred by a locked door. Perhaps the creature would knock politely upon discovering the locked door before coming in and devouring him. He laughed mirthlessly and shook his head.

"I'm being insane." His voice sounded strange in the late night silence. He leaned against the door watching the stretch of shadows across the floor. They were reaching for him. Like the creature? "There isn't a creature," he tried out, but the words didn't taste right. Shadows mocked him, swaying with the whim of the clouds across the moon. "There is a creature." He didn't know. He had the pictures, but even he was starting to doubt them. And that was crazy, but that was how his life was shaping out to be at the moment.

Rubbing his hands across his face, he looked around his room. It was a depressing little studio apartment. Just one room, sparsely decorated. Not enough room for himself and his equipment. If he could just pack up and move anywhere, but back with his parents he would. But he was stuck.

The glow from underneath his bed reminded him that he was charging his laptop. He crossed the room and dropped back down on his bed. Reaching down between his legs, he pulled his laptop from underneath the bed and settled it on his lap. Unplugging it, he booted it up and settled back on his pillows.

He checked his emails, but of course there were no responses from potential employers, just a reminder he was going to have to start paying his loans back soon. He ignored all of it and went to the site where he had uploaded his pictures.

There were comments. A lot of comments. He sat up straight. He never got that many comments. His images got some responses from a few loyal followers, but otherwise remained lost in the Internet. He clicked on them.

As he read through them the smile slipped off his face and a pounding headache took up residence behind his eyes. They were negative. Almost all of them. And the ones that weren't completely negative were backhanded comments of, 'usually ur pics are so gud.' People were accusing him of fraud. Of sensationalism. Of bad photoshopping.

He shouldn't let it get to him. He barely believed the damn picture. Except, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if these were people who routinely looked at his pictures. It was like the nutjobs and assholes came out of the woodwork just to give him flack. They had no idea what he had gone through, getting that picture.

Growling underneath his breath, he exited out of all the windows. He lifted his hand to slam the laptop closed, but stayed his hand at the last second. He couldn't afford a new laptop and destroying this one wasn't going to make him feel better. He sighed and shoved the laptop away from him.

He never should have uploaded the picture of the creature. But then he probably never would have met Isis, or whatever her real name was. He couldn't say the good completely outweighed the bad, but he tried to focus on her to block out the bad taste the comments left in his mouth.

Reaching over to his nightstand, he grabbed his digital camera and the cord to go with it. If he was up, he should at least put the pictures from today on his laptop. It would be just his luck that something happened to destroy his camera before he could do it if he waited any longer. Out of habit, he dropped the camera strap around his neck and hooked it up to his laptop.

A few clicks later and the contents were downloaded to the hard drive. Opening the folder, he clicked on the first picture of Isis.

There she was. She had her hand lifted to her hair, to keep the floating strands from flying in her face, and a frown on her face as she thought. She really was beautiful. His thumb hovered over the button to go to the next image when the picture started to fade. His brow furrowed and he tilted the camera to the light. No, the picture wasn't fading. Isis was fading.

Seconds after he had opened the image, she was gone from the screen. All that remained was an area of smudged white where she had been standing. If not for the vague human-shaped mark in the middle of the image, it might have looked like he was just taking pictures of rubble again.

What just happened? Breathing deeply, he switched to the next image. She was crouched down near the rubble, with her hand resting on the rock. But then she wasn't. Her form vanished from the screen and he was left looking at a blurry pile of rocks.

"What the hell," he cried, surging to his feet. The picture stared back at him sans one beautiful subject. He went through two, three more photos until he was too scared to click to the next picture. If he didn't look at it, it wouldn't fade.

He dropped to his knees and rested his head in the cradle of his hands, using the bed underneath his elbows to support the weight. "What the hell," he muttered again.

The door crashed open.

Shouting in alarm, he whipped around and tumbled off the bed. The interloper was not a large, hulking monster ready to devour him. Instead, it was the rather tall, but slim Isis, crouching down with a scythe in her hand like the grim-freaking-reaper. She was crouched low, with one hand providing her balance on the ground, while the other held her curved weapon aloft.

From his position on the ground, Draven could have sworn she had a pair of wings protruding from her back which wasn't even the craziest thing about the situation. He scrambled back, trying to put more distance between the crazy sickle wielding woman in his doorway.

Her pale eyes were glowing as she scanned the room. When her eyes focused on him, she squinted and turned her head slightly as though she saw something bright. Between one blink and the next, her eyes were a normal pale gray and the wings were gone.

Frowning, she straightened and glanced around the room once more. The scythe twirled around her hands. She tucked it behind her back and, he swore, it disappeared from existence. In what seemed like seconds, she had put her appearance to rights and once more resembled the natural beauty he had tried to take a picture of.

Except she wasn't. It was just an pretense.

She took a step toward him. "Draven, are you-"

"Stay away from me!" he cried, holding his hand up to keep her away. She looked surprised by his vehemence and took another step toward him. "Stay away! I mean it." He looked around the room, but couldn't find anything that would make an impromptu weapon. What was he going to use to defend himself against a scythe. He grabbed the rolling chair parked in front of his desk and pulled it in front of him. "Stay back. I’m warning you." He wasn't sure how effective it was considering how his voice shook.

"Draven, what is wrong?" She sounded genuinely curious.

"Oh my god!" He ran his hands through his hair. "You're crazy. You're crazy! You just burst through my door and you're asking me what's wrong?"

Her lips parted and she glanced back at the shattered remnants of the door. "Oh. My apologies. I was too enthusiastic. I promise you, it will not happen again."

"Of course it won't happen again. I'm calling the cops and, and you're going to jail, you psycho!" Her eyebrows twitched. She looked only mildly irritated by his threat and made no move to retreat or force him to not follow through with his warning. He looked around the room. His cell phone was still on his nightstand and his nightstand was next to her hip. Wonderful.

"Draven, please calm down. I can explain."

He scoffed. "Can you? Can you really explain." He lifted his hands and let them drop back down. "Go ahead. I'm listening. Explain why it was reasonable for you to knock down my door at three o'freaking-clock in the morning."

She looked around the room again and crossed her arms. "I had thought you were in danger."

Her even tone and relaxed stance calmed his heart against his wishes. He took a deep breath and tried to understand what was going on. "The only dangerous thing in this room is you," he said, speaking in a measured tone. Earlier, he had thought she was with the government. Busting down doors didn't preclude that assessment, but didn't they have to announce themselves or something.

He grabbed the back of the chair for support and tried to calm down. "Okay, listen. I don't know if you're with the government or if you're crazy or if you're some crazy government experiment." He waved his hands behind his back to indicate her wings. "But you've got to do better than that for an explanation." She narrowed her eyes and pinched her lips together. "How about you start with what you are?"

Her eyes widened and she looked around the room in a totally not suspicious manner at all. "What am I? What do you mean? I'm human. Like you. Just a normal human."

"Ha," he deadpanned. "You can't say you're human when you knock down doors with glowing eyes and wings and scythes and, and you won't stay in the damn picture." He waved his hand toward his laptop. "This is just insane." He shook his head. "You know what? I changed my mind. I don't want to know. I want to continue living in blissful ignorance."

"I wish it were that simple," Isis muttered. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot lightly against the ground. "Draven. I think you should come with me,” she said after a moment.

His eyebrows shot up and he gaped at her. "Go with you? Are you out of your mind. Oh, wait. You probably are. No, I'm not going with you. You need to get out or I'm seriously going to call the cops. I don't want to get involved in anything you're dealing with. So, seriously just get out."

"It's not safe here," she insisted.

"Only because of you!" His voice was rising again, but he couldn't find it in him to care when there was a psycho in his apartment.

If she responded, he didn't hear it over the shattering window.


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven  
Back straight and chin held high, Isis tried to ignore how the anger and fear she saw in Draven's eyes was like a vice around her heart. He was breathing heavily and the color was high in his cheeks. She saw him try and fail repeatedly to calm himself by slowing his breaths and squeezing his eyes closed. But then she would say something that hit him wrong. He was clutching his chair like it was the only thing keeping him grounded.

This was entirely her fault. She had overreacted when she had assumed Draven was the target. She had barged into his home without assessing if he was in any danger and now she had frightened him and probably ruined any chance of him trusting her in the future. 

Of course, on the other hand, if he had been killed she would have been second guessing herself, believing she shouldn't have hesitated on the other side of the door. She didn't know what was the right course of action, but this was the course of action she had chosen and she had to deal with it. 

And she needed to get Draven somewhere safe, somewhere he could hate her free from harm if that was what it took. "It's not safe here."

He inhaled sharply and his eyebrows pinched. "Only because of you!" 

Before she could respond, the window shattered. The glass shards sprayed toward them. She lifted her hands to shield her face from the shards. She blinked, quickly going into her second sight. It was there. 

The chimera. As it dove through the window, it's long claws were extended, outstretched toward Draven. Draven, who had no idea of the danger he was in, was just turning toward the window. 

No time to think. No time to plan where it hurt it most. Reaching into the pocket of space, she pulled forth her scythe and tossed it. It embedded in the chimera’s shoulder and twisted it’s trajectory away from Draven. 

It shimmered onto the physical plane and she quickly blinked out of her second sight. Draven was screaming and scrambling backward from the creature, tripping over the chair that he had used to defend himself against her. To him, it must have seemed like it had appeared out of nowhere.

The chimera was grotesque, looking like a large and grossly emaciated form of something that had at one time been part man and part beast. It contorted its body in a way that should have snapped its spine as it tried to reorient itself. It gouged holes in the wall with its claws in its confusion. 

She took the chance to yank Draven to his feet by his ratty shirt. "Run!" she yelled, pushing him toward the door. He made it two steps before the chimera skittered across the ceiling and dropped down to cut off Draven's escape route. 

Lunging forward, she tackled Draven and used her momentum to roll out of the way of the chimera’s eager claws. The room was too small. They couldn't get far enough away and the chimera easily batted her away from Draven. She pushed him away and kicked the creature's claws from making contact. 

She hit the wall, denting it. Black spots danced across her vision. She slumped away from the plaster on clumsy legs. The chimera had Draven in its grip. Its claws pierced his shirt. Something like glee spread across its pale face; it made her sick. She could see the fear lurking in Draven’s dark eyes.

"Hey! Over here," she called out hoarsely, but the creature didn't spare her a second glance. It was almost like he couldn't see her. Growling to herself, she leapt onto it's back and grabbed the scythe still embedded in its flesh. She braced herself against its thin, stretched skin and twisted the blade upward. It howled. 

Claws spasmed open, dropping Draven to the ground. It stretched its long arm up to grab her. Thick claws impaled her shoulder and it pulled her over and away. She twisted around to cushion her wings from the fall, flaring them up even as she hit the ground. She moaned through gritted teeth and rolled back to onto her feet. Blood was dripping down her back, but she had no time to address the wounds. 

Draven had put space between himself and the chimera, but not nearly enough. The room just didn't have enough space. And she couldn't do much to contain the chimera. She was just reacting to its single-minded focus on Draven. If she could just get it to fight her.

Could it even see her? The glowing red orbs in its sunken flesh of its face were focused completely on Draven. It’s skin pulled back from its lips in a growl. It was the only warning she got before it surged forward.

She darted across the room and lifted her scythe before it could land on him. The chimera slid across the angle of the blade like it was no more irritating than a feather. It howled, more irritation than agony, but it was enough time for Draven to duck out of the way its reach.

It crashed into the wall. Pieces of the ceiling gave way, landing on top of it. She hissed when plaster struck her injured shoulder. These weren't ideal circumstances to fight the creature, let alone subdue it and take it back home. She needed to retreat and regroup. She needed Tau and Akil. And she needed to get Draven away.

Draven stumbled away from the creature, approaching her like he couldn't see her either. She huffed and shook her head. They needed to leave while the chimera was thrashing underneath the pieces of Draven’s room. There were holes in the wall large and deep enough to see the outside, but she couldn't trust her wounded body to fly them away fast enough. The chimera was already emerging.

Summoning her energy, she lifted her scythe with tired arms and sliced the air next to him. He flinched, but she couldn't be sure whether it was from the scythe or the sparks of energy it created along with the portal. There was no time. She grabbed him by the waist and propelled them through the portal. 

She twisted around and landed roughly on her side. Disentangling from Draven, she grabbed her scythe and closed the gateway in one swift motion just as the creature dashed toward it. She imagined she could hear its roar of outrage. 

Stumbling to her feet, she touched her bloodied shoulder and winced away from the pain. The little food she had consumed at the library wasn't enough to heal her wounds. She felt almost light-headed and weak.

"Oh my God!" She flinched at Draven's cry, looking back at him as he rolled to his feet. He was holding his own shoulder, though she felt like she had taken the brunt of the fall. "Oh, my. I can't." He spun around in a circle, hands stretched out and eyes wide. "I'm alive." He slid his hands through his dark hair and then across his arms and chest. He clutched at the camera still around his neck like a lifeline. "I'm alive. I can't believe it. I'm alive." He turned around and seemed to notice her for the first time. "How did you-you saved me?"

"Yes." She frowned, taking a moment to assess where they had landed. It was an empty parking lot in front of a store that sold drugs of some sort. She hadn't had a chance to orient it the portal, but she didn't think they had gone that far from Draven's home because there hadn't been enough time to gather much energy. In fact... Her brow furrowed deeper. It wasn't her imagination, she could hear the creature. "We have to go," she said, turning to him quickly.

"What?" He looked at her blankly. "Go where." The question seemed to bring his anger and confusion rushing back. "What was that thing and why was it after me? What is going on? I don't under-" The creature roared again. They both turned to see the tall building dwarfing the little store. Chunks of stone and plaster fell from the structure as the creature emerged. It was only a dark shape across the gray building, but it was big and getting closer. "My apartment… Why won't it just give up?

She turned to face him and extended her hand. "Come with me. I'll explain everything later, but we have to go somewhere safe right now." He hesitated, his eyes flickering between the creature and her. "Please. Draven. Trust me. I'll keep you safe." 

He closed his mouth, determination entering his eyes, and clasped his hands. She sighed in relief. 

"Thank you." Pulling him close, she wrapped her arms around him and urged him to, "Hold on."

"What-" She bent her knees and pushed off from the ground. Her wings snapped open and she used it to force herself higher into the sky. She had to flap more than normal to keep the both of them in the air, but her wings caught the current and they soared across the sky.

...

Draven sat in the corner of the dusty room with his arms wrapped around him and tried to stay calm. The room was the first in the building. He could see the door hanging at an angle from his position across the room. Moonlight and the pale streaks of dawn’s light peeked in through the corners, illuminating just how big and empty the place was. Moldy furniture had been pushed aside to leave a clear space. Isis and her ‘friends’ hadn't done much redecorating before they took up squatting.

He flinched when the voices on the other side of the door increased in volume. He couldn't understand what they were saying, but he could get the gist of it based on the reaction of the other two when he and Isis had arrived. They weren't pleased to see him and they were angry with Isis. 

When they had arrived, she had pushed him into his current seat and tried to leave him to find and argue with the other two-though to be more accurate, she was only arguing with the dark-haired one though occasionally Draven could hear the third one's voice. He had grabbed arm before she could step away and saw the surprise on her face at the action. "You said you would explain," he had said. 

She nodded. "Yes, but Akil can explain everything so much better than I can. He should be here shortly." 

"No, please," he said, hating the fear in his voice. She opened her mouth, to deny him probably, and he could feel her pulling away. "Please," he repeated. "I don't know him and I don't trust him. I trust you." Her face softened and she had relented. It was still so hard to believe the explanation.

He rested his elbows against his knees and wrapped his hands around his camera. He couldn't believe it had survive. Well, he could barely believe that he had survive the encounter with some mythical creature. He had thought knowing what was going on, what the creature was, would make it easier to understand, but it didn't. It didn't make any sense. Nothing made sense. Everything he had thought he had known was tilted on its head. 

A deep voice, no doubt belonging to the dark-haired one, rose and the whole house shivered. The instantly grew silent. Draven's eyes flew to the ceiling as dust rained down, but it held. He exhaled a sigh of relief, but was immediately on alert again when the shouting started only slightly lower than it had been before. He was glad that he hadn't tried to intervene on Isis's behalf. He was way out of his league. He wasn't a big guy by any stretch of the imagination.

He had a trim figure with pretty muscular arms from having to lug his camera equipment around, but otherwise he was short and of average weight. He was of Korean descent; he didn't exactly have genes for big and burly. And these people were on an entirely different level than anything he had to deal with, including high schools bullies or general everyday assholes. 

He closed his eyes against the memory of his and Isis’s discussion. "What are you?" he had asked her. She avoided his gaze, crossing her arms and staring at the peeling paint on the wall behind him. "I saw the pictures. I took pictures of you," he said, palming the camera around his neck. "And you just disappear."

She lowered her eyes to the floor and uncrossed her arms. "I apologize. I never would have accepted that condition if I had known your newest picture technologies would still be unable to capture our appearances." He stared at her with his mouth slightly open.

Her eyes flickered up to meet his and determined steel entered her gray eyes. She lifted her chin and pushed her shoulders back. "We call ourselves the Catorrey. We come from another world, much different from your Earth, but we have visited here on occasion in the past. Upon our discovery by your people, you have come up with many names for us: Lamia, Aluka, vrykolakas, vampire." He stuttered a laugh and was forced to sit down because his legs refused to support him any longer.

"You expect me to believe you're a, a," the word was almost too ridiculous to utter, "a vampire?"

"Yes," she said succinctly. Not even a blink, like this was supposed to be completely reasonable.

"So what you can turn into a bat and you drink blood and sparkle in the sunlight?"

She tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips together. "Yes. On occasion we must drink human's blood in order to retain some of the essence necessary to remain in your world, but that is it. Our flying at night has led to the belief that we turn into bats,” she flexed her wings, “but I assure you that we do not. This is our only form," she said holding her arms out from her side. "We can project thoughts into a human's mind, so that they are unable to see the parts of us that make us stand out, but I have never heard of one our people using this ability to sparkle in the sunlight." She frowned. "What a strange notion."

"Yeah, I know." He crossed his arms in front of him. "So, you brought me here for what? A meal?"

Her eyes widened. "No, of course not. I brought you here to protect you." 

“You could have just let me go.”

But then she had explained about the creature that wanted to eat him and only him. He liked the part about how his staying alive saved people. It almost made him feel like a hero. And he could definitely keep staying alive for as long as necessary and then some. But the thought that the creature was stalking through the streets looking for him specifically was unnerving. 

That was when the other two had dropped down and taken her attention away from him. He took the reprieve to just think about what he had learned. He couldn't stop shaking.

Something creaked and his head snapped up to see what was approaching. It wasn't the bloodthirsty soulmate. Just the bloodthirsty vampires. Well, just Isis. She had her head thrown back in a pose he was starting to recognize as willing herself to be above whatever was irritating her this time as she came to a stop in front of him. 

Her eyes softened and her whole demeanor lost some of its tension. "How are you doing?" she asked. He immediately felt bad for the distrust he had felt toward her only moments before. When he had accepted her hand, he had said he trusted her. She had gotten him away from the creature. He just had to trust that she hadn't taken him from the lion's den and into the shark tank.

"I've been better," he said honestly. He pushed himself to his feet, using the wall to brace himself, and wrapped his arms around himself. "You?" 

She winced and her hand twitched toward her shoulder. It was only then that he remembered that she had been injured protecting him. He hadn't even thought about it since she hadn't looked terribly injured. She had flown them across the city after all! She was always pale, but the corner of her eyes were tight.

He took a step toward her and lifted a hesitant hand to her shoulder. "Are you all right. Don't you guys," he shrugged, "heal or something. I thought that was something vampires did."

"We do. On our home world and when we've had sufficient," she glanced apologetically at him, "essence." He flushed and took his hand back to himself. "I shall be all right for the time being. I am not in any danger of dying."

"But you are injured." Draven jumped at the harsh words coming from the dark vampire as he stormed into the room. The gray one trailed after him with a slight frown. "If you had not let yourself become distracted you could have captured the chimera." He spoke with the same stilted English he associated with Isis.

Isis lifted her hand and shook her head. "Do not start that again," she said with a weary sigh. "I am sorry you do not approve of how our first encounter with the creature ended, but that is what has happened and you have to accept it. Given the choice, I would do it all over again. And again. And again. I truly believe this was the best outcome for what the circumstances were. I know you do not approve, but that is how it is."

His face twisted with anger. "You let it get away," he snarled. 

Isis face implied this was not the first time he had accused her of it and she wasn't suddenly struck down with remorse. 

Then the dark vampire turned his attention onto Draven. "This is your fault. If that creature kills another soul then it will be on your head." 

Draven shrank back from the venom in his voice. He refused to be angry with Isis for saving his life, but if she had another safe house, one that wasn't already occupied with two angry vampires, then he would rather she had gone there instead. 

Silence descended on them as no one knew what to say to the vampire's accusation. Technically, he was right. If Isis had stayed and finished off the creature, with the only casualty being Draven, then their problem would have been solved. 

Except, Isis had said that as long as Draven was alive the creature wouldn't kill anyone else. So there weren't going to be any lost souls on his conscience. Not that he planned on pointing that out. 

The gray vampire opened his mouth, but Isis shook her head so imperceptibly he might not have noticed if he wasn't watching her. He snapped his mouth closed and looked away. Isis's mouth twisted and her hand twitched toward her shoulder. Her wounds.

"Are you okay?" he asked, stepping closer to her.

"Can you not see that she is not at all ‘okay,’" the dark one snapped. Draven flinched back, bumping against the wall behind him. Maybe the vampire wasn't angry that the creature had gotten away, but that Isis had been hurt in the process. Draven did feel badly about that, but he didn't know how he could have prevented it. The dark vampire placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and he wondered about their relationship. Friends? More.

"You need to feed," the gray one said, looking Isis over with a critical eye. "You will never heal without the blood."

"There is a meal right there," the dark one hissed, regarding at Draven with an intense look. 

Before Draven could be appropriately horrified by the idea, Isis shook her head vehemently and pushed the vampire's hand away. "No, Tau. He is not food. He is an innocent that needs to be protected." She rolled her neck and straightened her back. All hints of pain disappeared from her face and she arched an eyebrow. Something about her was regal, dignified. His hands twitched to take her picture.

"Akil, stay with him and make sure the chimera does not find him. Tau, you are with me," she said firmly. Neither one of them said anything, just nodded. She glanced at Draven before sweeping out of the room with Tau at her heels. He avoided the remaining vampire’s eyes.

"Stay in here," he said. "I will be on the roof." And then Draven was alone.


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight  
After a fitful night of sleep, Draven woke up with a sore back and sleep clouded mind. He glared at the stained wood in front of him and struggled to remember what had led him there. He flailed properly awake, smashing his hand against the wall and cursing softly when he recalled the creature and Isis and the _vampires_.

Clutching his hand to his chest, he jerked upright. How had he even fallen asleep? He turned away from the wall he’d been facing and yelped in surprise; a pair of bright gray eyes watched him unblinkingly. He had flattened himself against the wall before he recognized the owner of the eyes.

"Oh. Oh." His shoulders slumped. It was just Isis. She was leaning to the right of the broken door, hands tucked primly in front of her, just watching. "Oh," he said again, hand clutching at his chest. "You scared me." She pushed away from the door and approached him with her arms up and her hands open.

"Are you all right?" she asked in her oddly accented voice, crouching down in front of him. Draven nodded, unable to take his eyes off of her as he catalogued everything about her that made her seem so normal and yet still inhuman.

Her eyes were gray, not an unusual eye color, and yet they held a spark of something that just wasn't normal. Or maybe his mind was just trying to reconcile what he knew with what he saw. Before she had escaped with him through a magical hole in his wall that she had conjured, he might not have thought she was anything more than some weird military operative. Turned out, she was from a whole other world.

"You did not rest well. Nightmares?"

He brought his hands up to grasp at his camera, only to discover it wasn’t around his neck. Ignoring the quickly fading throb in his left hand, he looked away from her to scan the ground for it. It was situated against the wall, just out of reach. His fingers twitched to handle its light weight.

He didn't want to think about what kind of dreams he had been graced with. They were odd and strange and he didn't really want to understand them. Something about them made him uneasy and he didn't want to probe too deeply at them.

"I'm fine. Thanks. How did you sleep?" He looked at her closely. He hadn't heard her come back in, having fallen asleep not too long after Akil had left him. Her eyes were bright and she was staring at him with sharpness in her gaze. However, the reds and oranges filtering through the dirty window and cracks around the door made him think nighttime wasn’t long off. "Do you sleep?" he amended.

Her head tilted to the side like a strangely endearing bird as she contemplated his question. "Occasionally I find it necessary to hibernate for a short period of time. It was not necessary this day. After I had fed, I felt well enough to continue the search for the creature. I do not think it is wise to let it continue on unabated, even if there is no danger to the other people so long as you live."

His nose wrinkled and he looked away from her pale face at the reminder of what being a vampire really meant. "That's great," he said weakly. Pushing to his feet, still pressing against the wall, he slid away from her to put more distance between them. He turned away from her and grabbed the dusty windowsill. He had a murky view of the savage and overgrown backyard. "The sooner you get the creature, the better. Right?"

"Correct." He jumped, whirling around to discover she was standing behind him. "I apologize." Lifting her hands, she took two steps back. "I seem to constantly startle you." He laughed faintly and rubbed the back of his head. "You are uneasy with me. I apologize," she said again, dropping her hands to her side.

"No," he said in a voice too faint to be convincing. His eyes flickered to the wings over her head. "I just, I'm still trying to figure all of this out. You can understand that right. I mean, this is crazy."

She approached him slowly as though to give him plenty of time to balk at her approach. "Crazy is relative," she said. She reached out and pressed her hand to his face. Her cool fingers slid from his temple across his eyebrows. He blinked, realizing she was staring at his piercing. "Does it hurt?" she asked. He shook his head mutely. "It is strange, but I like it."

He swallowed. "No, of course not," he said, taking a step back. "I mean, not anymore. It didn't even hurt that much when I got it done. Why would I get it done if it was going to hurt all the time." He shook his head to cut off his babbling. "Never mind.

She shrugged, a slight ripple across her shoulders. "Humans are strange," she countered. "I have watched Earth for many years and yet I still I do not understand any of the things you do or why you do them. I try to, I like strange, but some things I just cannot wrap my head around."

"My piercings aren't that weird," he said stiffly. He didn't like the idea of somehow being beyond her comprehension and he didn’t really know why. It was especially odd when she was something he couldn't understand. "Not compared to," he flailed at her, trying to encompass her wings and her skin and, "you eat people."

Her mouth dropped open in surprise. "We do not eat people. Not only is it forbidden, but we don't need to consume meat. Just the blood. You know, one of the strange things about humans, is some of you do eat other humans. And yet you fear us. I would be more wary of my neighbor knowing that.” She canted her head to the side. “In fact, there was the woman at the library who was eyeing me quite oddly."

He sputtered. "That's not. Most people aren't cannibals. And no one here in Virginia. Not someone you would find in a library. You know what, this conversation just got too weird. Let's change the subject." She opened her mouth to perhaps argue, but then he asked, "What were you doing in the library, anyway?"

"Looking for you," she said simply. He stared at her until she elaborated. "I was sure that when the creature awoke, someone here would notice, but then the only indication of its existence I found was in your images. That is why I came to find you. It is a good thing too."

"Yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at the ground. "Look. I appreciate you saving me, obviously, but I feel like I should apologize. It's my fault this creature-thing is still out there."

He looked up when she wrapped one hand around his wrist, pulling it down, and pressed the other to her chest. "Draven, I meant what I said. I do not regret the actions that I have taken. I do not understand these emotions, but I would choose to do the same over and over again. Do you understand?" He nodded. "Plus, Akil assured me that it would not attack anyone until it has found you, which it will not do," she added fiercely. "I will protect you. Yes?"

"Yeah." He cleared his throat. "Yes. Thanks--thank you." She nodded. Her eyes dropped down to where they were around his wrist and she hastily released him. He cleared his throat again and took a seat on the floor. She curled her legs underneath her and gracefully eased herself down.

"Can you tell me more about it. Last night, I was a little out of it, but I think I need to know more about it. Like is there a way for you to break this bond or whatever. I get that, my being alive is the only thing keeping the city safe, which is great, but is there a way to make the creature stopping wanting to kill me, besides killing me?"

She clasped her hands together. "I still maintain that Akil would be much better at explaining this." He opened his mouth, but she held her hand up to dissuade him from speaking. "However, I understand your reticence in speaking with the others so I will try to explain this as best as I can."

"Thank you," he said gratefully. The thought of trying to get information out of the other vampires, even if it was just Akil made his stomach twist into knots. Akil looked at him like he was a particularly interesting bug. And Tau looked at him like he was a particularly disgusting bug.

He was relieved that it was just Isis here with him. He couldn't imagine what would have happened if he had woken up to the distrustful stares of the other two. She looked at him and smiled, soft and warm around the edges; he quickly dropped his gaze away from the sight.

"I spoke to Akil about your circumstances. Ideally, I wanted to take the bond off of you and to transfer it to myself. That way, the creature would come for me and you would be safe." She dropped a gentle hand on his wrist and he stared at the contrast in skin colors. She was so pale. "Unfortunately, Akil expressed quite certainly that there was no other way, except for death. That includes teleporting you away from here."

"Teleporting." He lifted his eyes to look into hers. "That's how you guys got here, right. Teleporting. From another world."

"Yes. I am able to open portals between our worlds. Well, we are all able to open portals to other worlds, but it comes most easily to my bloodline. I thought we might be able to hide you with my parents until we could deal with this creature. Again, that was not an option. It would keep you safe, but the creature."

She frowned, removing her hand from his to wrap around herself. "I do not understand, but Akil said that the creature would despair when it realized you weren't dead, but on another world, which would cause the mass destruction we are trying to avoid."

He closed his eyes and ran his hand along the wall until it brushed against his camera. He pulled it into his lap.

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "But as far as we can tell, the only way to break the bond is for one of you to die." He laughed mirthlessly and shook his head. He rested his elbows on his knees and cradled his camera. "I assure you, that it will not be you." He didn't say anything and she grabbed his hands, pulling them away from his head. "It will not be you. I know you did not ask to be dragged into this mess and I will make sure you walk away from it."

"Yeah, thanks," he said stiffly. She didn’t say anything, but he could feel her gaze on him. “I appreciate that, I am. I’m just not so sure that everything’s going to just work out for me.” It hadn’t in the past and it would be ridiculous for him to think now, just because the situation was beyond anything normal, things would suddenly be in his favor. “I mean last time you fought it, you got injured because of me.”

“That is not true,” she said, grabbing his arm and forcing him to look at her. “It is not. Not matter what Tau says.” She made him turn to face her, their knees bumping against each other. "I know Tau didn't make the best impression yesterday." He snorted. "But you must understand the circumstances that led us here. He is a little upset that I was so close to the creature, but still unable to subdue it. You see, his father was killed by that same creature and he has volunteered for this mission to finally subdue it once and for all."

Against his will, he felt himself softening to Tau. He couldn't imagine what would do if something happened to lovingly intrusive parents. No wonder Tau had been such an asshole the previous night. No matter what Isis said, Tau needed someone to blame and Draven was the perfect person. "What happened?" he asked. "The creature used to be on your homeworld, right?" She nodded. "So, how did it come here?"

She sighed and her eyes drifted upward as she thought. "I do not know everything that happened, I was still in training at the time, and we have only just now got more information about the chimera. It was fifty years ago that the chimera first attacked. There was much speculation on how it had escaped from its prison, but now it seems someone deliberately released it. The warriors fought it bravely, but so many died in the process. It was a vicious creature hell bent on taking out anyone that got too close. Unfortunately, Tau's father got too close."

Wincing, Draven looked away from her. It made sense. Draven was the one responsible or letting it get away. Looking at it like that, Draven realized, "He must hate me." Isis looked at him with confusion and he clarified. "Tau. I mean, I woke the creature that killed his father and then I prevented you from being able to kill it."

"Draven," she said with a warning note in her voice. "Draven, look at me." He met her light-colored gaze. "It is not that simple. If you had not woken the creature up, we never would have known it was here. There is a traitor in our midst and he hid the creature here on Earth, probably so that he could find it later and use it against us.

“With your bond with the chimera, it cannot do the bidding of the traitor and while it is looking for you, he cannot control the creature. We can finish this without any casualties. When we accepted this mission we knew that there was a good chance that we would not be returning. You've given us hope."

She placed her cool hand against his and he believed her. "And contrary to what Tau would have you believe, you didn't prevent me from killing it. I am under orders not to kill it. We have to take it back home, so that it cannot harm any humans."

"Oh." He frowned as he mulled over her words. "So, you just need to find it in order to take it back." She nodded. He hesitated and leaned closer to her. "Have you thought about using me-"

"No."

"No? If I could lure-"

"No." He opened his mouth to continue to protest, but she covered his mouth with her hand. "No. We are not going to use you as bait. I refuse to have this discussion. Not with Tau or Akil and certainly not with you." She waited until he nodded before she removed her hand from his mouth.

He ran his tongue across his chapped lips. "Sorry," he said with a shrug. "I was just trying to help out."

"Well, do not," she said shortly. "I do not want you in harm's way at all. Once we get the creature back to our homeworld, I want you to be able to just go back to your life. I do not want this chance you have given us to disrupt your world any more than it already has. Yes?" He nodded.

He ran his hand through his hair as silence fell between them. "Wait," he said, sitting up straight as a thought occurred to him. "What's going to happen to me when you take the creature back to wherever you guys come from?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you said if you teleported me to your homeworld, even briefly, the creature would rampage in despair or whatever. But what about me. Will it be dangerous to me? Or will I really be able to go back to my life?"

Not that he had much of a life to get back to. He was missing classes today and he had wanted to follow up on some of the places he had dropped his resume off. It didn't look like that was going to happen. He wondered if anyone even noticed that he had just disappeared. Probably not, but someone had to have noticed the hole in his apartment.

She frowned. "I'm not sure. I do not think it will harm you. Akil didn't say there was any danger for you when we're able to subdue the creature." Crossing her arms across her chest, she leaned back against the wall. He could see the thoughts swimming behind her beautiful pale eyes. "I do not see why you would be harmed by the creature leaving. The bond is only one way." He nodded slowly, lifting a hand to rub at his temple. She sat up and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "What is wrong?"

"It's just a headache. I can't seem to shake it." He looked up and noticed the concern in her eyes. He summoned a smile, but didn't think it was very convincing because her frown deepened. "I'm fine. Really. It's just one of the headaches you get from sleeping, you know?"

She shook her head. "Do you get these headaches a lot?"

"Well, no," he said with an embarrassed shrug. "Not until recently."

Her eyebrow twitched. "How recently?"

He opened his mouth, but then closed it as he thought over her question. How recently? Well, ever since he had stumbled across the creature. He remembered waking up that night after a restless sleep with a pounding headache.

"It's just that I'm not sleeping well," he said, trying to divert her attention. "I mean this creature is freaking me out. I'm having nightmares. I feel like its over my shoulder, breathing down my neck all the time. That's all." She continued to stare at him. He pulled his hand away from his forehead when he realized he was rubbing it again. "What?"

"What are your nightmares about? If you do not mind that I ask." He did mind and he tried to dredge up some anger for her intrusiveness. His dreams were his own business. But then, a little voice inside his head told him to stop. She was just trying to help And he could use all the help he could get. He couldn’t alienate the one person interested in helping him escape the situation alive.

"I don't know," he said with a shrug, looking away from her.

She placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. "Just try. Please. It might help if you talked about it."

He snorted, but closed his eyes, trying to remember the most recent dream he had been subjected to. Beneath his eyelids, he felt like there were flashes of lights, images, but he just couldn't make them out.

"I don't know," he said again with a shake of his head. "They're just things. It's all jumbled." He opened his eyes. She continued to look at him until he closed his eyes again. "There's a street. Maybe." He bit his lip as the images slowly got a little more clear. “I think there are people, but they don't really look like people. I don't know how to describe it." He opened his eyes with a frustrated sigh. "It's a dream. It's dream logic, you know? Clearly, when you think about it in the real world, they're not people, but in the dream I knew they were people."

"What did they look like?"

He sighed again and rolled his eyes. "I don't know. Just blobs of light. Except not light. I mean they were glowing or whatever, but it wasn't like a white light. It was sort of grays and blacks."

"What did they say to you?"

"Nothing. They couldn't even see me. I was just walking right through them. And I wasn't even me." She arched her eyebrow. "I mean, I was me. I knew I was me, but I also knew that it wasn't my body. Look, seriously. It was just a dream. Nothing to analyze. I just have a lot on my mind. That's all." He glanced at her and her eyes were unfocused and she was frowning slightly. A trickle of unease marked its way down his spine. "What?"

She shook her head and he snorted. That was a bit irritating when she was the one doing it. "It might be nothing..."

"Or...?"

"Or it might mean the bond isn't one way and you can see through the eyes of the creature. What you were seeing were the essences of those humans, their souls."

“Great.” He got to his feet and started to pace in front of her. She tracked him with just her eyes. “Great,” he repeated. “So, what does that mean for me. When you take the creature am I going to die from a broken heart. Because that can happen to humans, you know?”

She frowned and shook her head. “No. I did not know. I will ask Akil about it later, but he might not know everything there is to know about this creature and I don’t want to give him or Tau any ideas about using you.”

He crossed his arms. “So, I’m just going to have to live with this creature in my head.”

“For now.” He huffed. “But if you see anything that might be able to help locate it, please tell me. I want to help you.”


	9. Chapter Nine

Isis watched from the rickety porch of the dilapidated house they were occupying as Akil and Tau took to the skies. The moon was obscured by heavy clouds in the sky, leaving the night murky and damp with impending rain. 

It hadn't taken much to convince them to leave her behind with Draven while they continued the search for the chimera. After she had completely dismissed the idea of using Draven as bait, neither had any more interest in him. But Isis, she had a lot of interest in him. She turned away from the specks of her departed brethren to look toward the darkened doorway like she could see Draven. 

She worried about him. He needed to be protected from both the chimera and the idea still lingering in Tau and Akil’s eyes. She wanted to protect him, but there was something else that drew her toward him. She didn't just want to guard him, but that was as far as she understood her feelings.

These emotions were difficult to decipher, primarily because of the persistent headache she had that wouldn't disappear until she had some human’s essence in her. Tau hadn't berated her for her abstinence; perhaps they thought she was partaking of Draven. Alone, she allowed a grimace to cross her face. She would never. Shaking the thought from mind, she went inside.

In the few days Draven had been with them, he had relaxed enough to demand some basic amenities. She kept expecting requests to go home, whatever was left of it, but he seemed content to stay on the makeshift bed he had constructed and eat the food they brought back for him. 

His face twitched in sleep and she knew he was close to waking. He was shifting his sleep schedule so that he was awake at night like them and asleep during the day when they were resting. He always seemed to wake after Akil and Tau had departed. She didn't know if it was planned or happenstance. He hadn't had more concrete information about the creature, but she could see it was taking its toll on him. Akil and Tau’s distrust weren't helping matters.

The idea of mistrust brought home to mind. How it was going there? Did they have the slightest hint of who the traitor might be? It was still difficult to imagine someone would betray their king and their people for no apparent reason. What kind of person would do that?

Taking a seat on the floor, she curled her hand underneath her chin and watched Draven. She waited for the telltale sign that he had crossed the threshold from mostly asleep into the realm of mostly awake. She was curious about him. What kind of person was he?

They had questioned him about what his favored places, places that the creature might go to in an attempt to find him. He had said the only places he went to with any frequency was his home which was probably destroyed and his school. He seemed to be quite reserved, but Isis had already gotten that from his photographs. 

Draven’s restraint should have made it easier to locate the chimera. Akil and Tau had been searching the college campus for the past three days, but there was still no sign of the creature. Her royal blood made the view of the otherwold like a second sight for her while it took both them focusing to see in the otherworld. But, she didn't think they would miss anything. Their pride wouldn't let them.

Her eyebrows twitched up when Draven frowned and rolled over onto his stomach. He groaned softly and his eyes blinked open. They were brown. A color that was supposedly quite common among the humans, but his seemed to be a little bit different. Just like him. They were incredibly dark in his light face.

Draven stared at her blankly for a few minutes before he started. He had raised himself into a half-crouched position before recognition sparked in his dark eyes and the tension drained from his body. "Oh. It's you." She belatedly realized she had startled him again. Sighing, he dropped back to a sitting position and leaned his back against the wall behind him. He rubbed his hand across his face. "You surprised me."

"My apologies," she said. She had to remember that humans couldn't immediately sense who was in the room with them, especially when they woke up. Was it terrifying to lose control of the senses so completely for nearly eight hours every night? There were a few people she could ask that had been born human, but they rarely spoke of their lives prior to the change. 

He waved her apology off and pushed himself to his feet. He stumbled by her to the where they had set up bathroom facilities. She lightly clasped her hands together in her lap and waited for him to finish his morning or rather late evening ablutions. When he returned he looked more refreshed, lifting his hands over his head in a loud groaning yawn. "Morning," he said, perhaps out of habit because after a moment he glanced toward the darkened window and added, "well, whatever."

"Yes," she said with a nod. She hesitated, reluctant to question him further, but it was necessary. If he had a connection to the creature like she suspected it was necessary to understand it. Of course, Akil and Tau would take it too far, so she thought it was best that she kept it to herself for the time being. 

What would her father say about withholding information from her team. She didn't know if he would approve or chastise her. She knew as a king, he didn't reveal everything he knew about a situation, but she didn't know how those conditions translated to this circumstance. 

She really had no choice. "Did you sleep well?" 

He shrugged and dropped down to the seat, sitting across from her. "It was all right, I guess. Just jumbled images. Nothing concrete." The corners of his lips turned down and he glanced away from her. "Sorry. I wish I was more help."

"You have done more than enough," she rushed to assure him. 

He seemed to feel emotions so strongly and felt like he should be able to affect everything, even-no especially those things out of his control. Though given how out of his control the situation was, Draven seemed to be handling everything surprisingly well. Even that first night, he hadn't been the hysterical mess she had heard tales of. 

In the past, her people had spoken to humans about what they were it always seemed to end with a group of people wielding pitchforks and torches. Probably why Tau and Akil were so wary of him. "Thank you," she said. "You have been quite helpful and understanding, considering all that has occurred."

"Yeah, well.” He shrugged and lifted his eyes to meet hers again. "Maybe it's nice to know there are bigger problems out there. Makes mine seem more surmountable, I guess." She opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but he shook his head as though he could read her mind.

"So," he said brightly. "Do you mind telling me what your world is like? I mean," he looked around the room, "there isn't a lot for us to do, so I thought we could talk. Do all the people look like you?" he asked, motioning toward her wings. 

She lifted her hand to brush against the wings protruding from her back. He seemed to find that and the feeding the most distracting while she barely thought about her wings at all. They were just a part of her. It was hard to imagine not having them. 

"Yes, we all do. It is part of what makes us us, I suppose. I had not thought of it."

“I've never heard of vampires with wings like that.” He rested his chin in his hand and his elbow on his knee. “Are you guys immortal though?” 

"Our people are generally very long-lived," she said after the silence extended for a few minutes. "But there aren't that many of us." Her parents had been quite relieved to conceive her, which probably contributed to their over-protectiveness. She was the only heir to the throne. "The king and queen are over a thousand years old."

"Oh. So you guys have a monarchy. Has it been the same king and queen for that thousand year period." She inclined her head. "So, if they're no good you're kind of stuck with them, huh?" He laughed, but she pinched her lips together.

"The king and queen are great rulers. They have devoted their entire lives to serving our people and maybe that doesn't mean much to a human that would be lucky to get to see a hundred years in their life, but for our people that is a great commitment. One that cannot be taken lightly." He stared at her with wide eyes and she quickly clamped her mouth shut. She was berating him unfairly.

She pushed her hair out of her face and tightened her hands together in her lap. "I apologize," she said stiffly, throwing her head back. "That was unkind and unfair of me."

"No, no, it's okay?" he said hesitantly. "Didn't mean to insult you or your people."

She inclined her head in acceptance of his sort-of apology. He didn't know. She hadn't yet told him that she was the princess. She wasn't sure if she wanted to tell him. Something held her back. 

She could command Tau and Akil to treat her like another member of the team, but her father had already placed her in charge of the mission. Tau may be her friend, but he had always treated her with a certain deference. One that she expected. 

But here, with Draven, he didn't see her that way. She didn't know how him knowing her status would affect how he felt about her, but she rather not find out. "It is quite all right. I'm just not used to hearing such things about the king and queen. They are looked upon favorably by the people." He nodded with a lift of his eyebrows. "And as a warrior, I have taken an oath to the king and the queen in their efforts to serve the people."

He nodded again. "So, you're a warrior. Like a real one." She frowned at him, but nodded. She didn't know what a fake warrior would be, but she knew she wasn't it. "You actually had to take an oath to become one. That’s cool. You didn't just decide to fight or something?"

"No. The warrior's oath is a sacred vow and with exacting standards that must be met before one can take it. It is a devotion to the king and the land. I've pledged my life to the warrior's oath." 

"Wow. So, you're like Xena." Her eyebrows trekked up her forehead. "You know, Xena: Warrior Princess." Her breath caught. Had he guessed. "Well, except the princess part." She exhaled slowly. "And the being a vampire and not an Amazon warrior. But, yeah..." He clasped his hands together in front of him and rolled his thumbs over each other. 

"I suppose it is similar to that." Very similar. “Though, I cannot be positive. I only took the warrior's oath a few days ago. This is my first mission."

He whistled lowly. "Hell of a first mission." Sighing, he leaned back against the wall and glanced at her. "But I have to say. For your first mission, you seem to know what you’re doing. And it looks like the others agree with me. They seem to follow your orders for the most part." He nodded, turning to stare blankly into the center of the room. "It's like you were born to do it."

She kept her breaths slow and even to avoid tensing up at his words. He was so close to figuring it out and he wasn't even trying. "Thank you. I am glad you think so. I really feel like I have made the right decision with my life."

He grunted and covered his face with hands. "That must be nice. Knowing that what you are doing is what you are supposed to be doing." Concerned at the bitterness in his voice, she lightly touched his forearm until he looked at her. "It's nothing," he said immediately. She pursed her lips and he laughed lightly. 

"It’s just, I'm photography major. And there’s not a whole lot I can do with it. Not like what I want to do. I’m looking for jobs, but it's not likely to happen. I'll probably have to move back in with my parents after I graduate. And that, that's one of the worst fates that can befall a college graduate."

"I am sorry to hear that."

"If that's not bad enough, however long I stay with them they’re going to make sure to mention as often as possible that this is all my fault because I didn't choose a job with some kind of future like a doctor or engineer. They've never been fond of my choice of career."

The corner of her mouth lifted and she nodded. "Yeah. My parents were not initially happy with me choosing the warrior's oath. After a while my father came around, but I can tell my mother is still not pleased though she pretends otherwise."

Sitting up abruptly, he gave an exaggerated nod. "Yes! Exactly that. Like even if I had this perfect job lined up for me after college they would still not be happy with me. And I get it. That had plans for me or whatever, but it's my life and if I'm not happy with how it, isn't it up to me to fix it. I'm the one who has to live it." 

She nodded again, giving another small smile. "Finally someone who understands," he continued. She bit her lip and looked away from the elation in his dark eyes and voice. Sighing, she rolled her shoulders and rubbed the back of her neck. "All right?"

"Yes, thank you. I am fine." He didn't say anything and when she looked up he was staring at her. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Really. It is nothing. I just need to feed. It's been a few days and I am feeling a little strained."

"Oh." His voice was subdued. She dropped her head down to look at the ground between her feet, resting her elbows on her knees. She didn't want to see his face. It was one of the things he had doubts about and she felt like she had ruined the moment they had just established. "Oh," he said again. "Well, why don't you just go get something to eat. Some fast food or something." He laughed lightly, a tad breathlessly.

She shook her head vehemently, lifting her head to look at him. His eyes were wide and his skin a little pale, but otherwise he looked all right given the discussion. He didn't look distrustful or disgusted which was a relief. "No. Definitely not. I cannot leave you alone. If the creature finds you here, you will need protection. We can just wait until the others return."

"But you don't know when that will be. Just go. I'll be fine."

"Not likely." 

He crossed his arms and frowned. He looked cute. "That's not fair. Sure, if the creature found me I'd be toast, but really. It hasn't found me yet. What are the chances that the one time I'm alone he does find me. That's not likely."

Her hair slipped over her shoulder when she shook her head again. "I would not feel right leaving you alone. I swore that I would protect you and I would be remiss in my duties if I left you alone for selfish reasons." I don’t want to leave you. She pressed her lips together before the words could slip out.

"But it doesn't make sense for you to starve because of me," he said, waving toward the small trash pile that was gathering in the corner. "I mean, you guys make sure that I get something to eat.” He crossed his arms and frowned. "You shouldn't put my welfare above yours. That isn't right.” She remained silent, disinclined to give in. 

“What if," he started, but then didn't say anything else. She looked at him, lifting her eyebrows to silently urge him to finish. His eyebrows were pinched together and he looked distinctly uncomfortable. "What if I went with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what if I went with you while you went and got something to eat. You run and get something to eat and I'll stay nearby so you don't have to worry about me." She started to shake her head. "Come on, Isis. You don't know how long before your friends come back. They didn't leave all that long ago. And what will happen to you if you don't get something to eat. Nothing good, right?"

Isis opened and closed her mouth and Draven just continued to stare at her until she said. "All right," with a sigh. "All right. Let's go." He grinned brilliantly and she found and answering smile tugging at her lips. 

With him looking at her like that, she couldn't find it in her to regret her decision.


	10. Chapter Ten

Draven gasped silently and unclenched his grip on Isis's arms when his feet touched the ground. He staggered back and was grateful for the wall behind him to keep him upright. He had forgotten how much he hated flying with Isis. It wasn't like he thought she would drop him or anything, but he was just very aware that there was nothing underneath him and he was relying on a tiny slip of a woman to keep him from falling to his death. 

With some trepidation, he looked to Isis and expected to see a mocking smile of his gracelessness. Instead she was facing away from him scanning the empty parking lot they had landed in. He supposed she was making sure no one had seen their entrance and he took the moment to compose himself and push away from the wall. When he came to stand next to her, her pale eyes flickered over him. "Are you all right?"

He winced. So she had seen his rather clumsy display. "Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine. No problem. I guess I don't quite have my, uh, air legs yet." She stared blankly at him and he felt his face heat. "Never mind. So. Food." He clapped his hands together and started walking. "What exactly are we looking for?"

"Anyone will do."

"Really?" he said, unable to keep the disbelief out of his voice. And what had become of his life that the answer to ‘what do you want to eat’ was answered with ‘anyone’ and he _didn't_ run screaming. "You don't have a preference. Do people, or rather their blood, taste different." She shook her head with a shrug. "I mean, I guess that makes sense. Blood is coppery and all, but you don't prefer guys to girls, redheads to blonds? Nothing?"

She frowned. "I hadn't thought about it. I may have viewed Earth in the past, but I haven't been here recently. And as you've seen we don't have to feed very often. I usually just try to sip from whoever is alone and available. I don't have the luxury of being selective. I must feed quickly and quietly so that no one notices that I am there."

He made a quick decision. "Well, that's what I'm here for then."

Her brow pinched and she looked at him with confusion. "What in this world are you talking about?"

"I'll be your lookout." A smile spread across his face as he warmed to the idea. "Yeah. Yeah, that seems like a fair trade. You protect me from creatures who want to eat my soul or whatever and I'll protect you from prying human eyes." Her frown deepened and he could see the dismissal on her face before she even opened her mouth. "Isis, please. It's the least I could do after all that you have done and are doing for me."

"And what I do is the least I could do, considering this creature is not even supposed to be on Earth." 

He crossed his arms and stood resolute. He wasn't going to back down. 

She dropped her hands to her hips and approached him with a sort of stalking grace. Her eyes flickered over him, searching his eyes then dragging down over his body. She shook her head. "It does not make sense," she said, sounding almost plaintive. "Why are you doing this? You have not shown an interest in my consumption before. In fact, you were quite disgusted it with it. Why do you insist on helping."

"I," he said, intending to repeat his earlier words. He did owe her. She had saved his life and pledge to continue doing it until the creature was killed, but there was more to it. They probably could have waited until the other two had gotten back. He didn't think Isis would put herself in that type of danger for him. 

So, why was he here, insisting on helping her, making sure she got food. "I, I don't know," he finally said with a shrug. "I guess, needing a bit of human blood is part of who you are and I want to accept that and everything that makes you, you." 

Her lips parted and he heard her suck in air; he turned away and continued speaking before she could say a word. “I mean, talking about our parents and how they haven’t always been on board with everything we've done. I think it’s pretty hypocritical of me to censure them, but do the same. You need human blood. And that’s cool with me. Or it will be. I’ll make it be. ‘Cause I like you.” His face felt warm and he was glad he was facing away from her.

“That is-” Her voice sounded strange, but when he turned back around to face her he still couldn’t place her expression. She pinched her lips together and smoothed her face of any emotion. “That is very kind of you.”

He smiled softly to himself. Reaching back, he grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to his side. She went easily though he knew if she wanted she could have broken free. His smile wanted to widen and he bit his lip to keep it from showing on his face. "Come on. I recognize this part of town. There's a bar around the corner we can pop into. How's that sound?"

"I still have no preference for blood, but if you think that would be a good place to start then I am at your mercy." 

He laughed softly and glanced at her. The corners of her lips turned up and she flashed her teeth at him. He could see the tips of her canines; they didn't look very pointy at all. Was she using her glamour on him? He didn't think so. 

Before when she did the glamour thing, he had always been able to tell there was something strange about her. Something seemed to shimmer behind her, like heat against the pavement. But now, her teeth barely came to a point and he could still see her wings. He decided not to ask about the fangs. Not yet. He was taking it one step at a time. He really did want to get to understand everything about her, but he didn't want to overwhelm himself either. 

...  
The bar wasn't very crowded. It was one of those low-key places that people went to after work, just to unwind. They were probably the youngest people in the place. Well, to be fair, Draven was probably the youngest person in there and Isis was probably the oldest. "Hey," he said into her ear over the music. She turned to face him, tilting her face closer. "How old are you?"

Her mouth twisted and she frowned. "Two hundred and fifty." His eyes widened and he may have gasped. "I think. The conversion to your earth years is not exact, of course."

"Of course," he said weakly. So, Isis was definitely the oldest person in the room. She was five times as old as his parents. What a way to think about it. "You look great for your age," he teased. She stared at him and he guessed she hadn't understood the joke. "Never mind," he said quickly. If he started to explain how age bred insecurity it was likely to turn out to be another insult to her.

"You should probably be able to find something to drink," he glanced around the room, "in the restroom." He pointed toward the darkened back of the room. She nodded her head and began to pull away. "I'll just be waiting by the bar. There aren't a lot of women that come here, so there won't be a lot of people in there and you probably won't be interrupted once you get," he cleared his throat, "get started."

"Are you quite all right?" she asked, pressing her cold hand to his cheek.

"I'm fine. Really." He nodded, not sure if he was trying to convince himself or her and nudged her toward the bathroom until she started walking on her own. Feeling like he had just pointed out the best way to eat some unsuspecting woman, he went to the bar with slow footsteps. He pushed his hand through his hair and rested his elbows against the dark, grainy bar. 

"Can I help you?" He looked up to see the bartender leaning against the bar with a tight frown on his face.

"Uh, just a water please." He could tell his order hadn't pleased the man, but the guy slid a bottle of water across the table.

"And what about your girlfriend? What’ll she be having?"

"My, uh," he twisted around to see where Isis had disappeared into the bathroom, realizing what he had guessed about them. Isis as his girlfriend? The thought wasn't bad, not even when he thought about what she was probably doing in the bathroom at that moment. 

"Um." He looked back at the bartender who looked annoyed with his indecision. "I'm not sure what my girlfriend wants, but I will ask her as soon as she gets back," he said with a small grin. The bartender lost interest in him with an irritated snort and went to take someone else's order.

"Wait," he called, before the man could get far. "Actually, could you get her a bloody Mary." His grin widened though the bartender didn't seem to care for his sense of humor or that he probably wouldn't have laughed even if he got the joke. His mouth twisted, but he turned around to get it anyway. 

Admittedly, he had been a bit apprehensive about venturing into the city with Isis, but he thought it was turning out well. Draven tapped his fingers against the bar. A shiver of cold trickled down his spine; was he being watched? He turned around slowly. He bit back a scream as he nearly ran into Isis who was was standing close behind him. 

Her eyes were opened wide and her lips were pale and moist. He licked his lips. "Finished?" he asked before she could apologize for startling him. He wouldn't know what to do if she didn't startle him every time he turned around.

"No," she said in a low voice, leaning in close. "I cannot feed from anyone here."

He frowned. "Why not? Is something wrong?"

Her nose wrinkled and her pale eyes darted around the room. "They are all poisoned." Before he could ask her what she meant by it, her eyes widened and she glanced at something behind his back. He turned toward the bar just as the bartender dropped the cup, filled to the brim with red liquid, on the wooden surface. "Poison," she said. 

"It's-" He groaned, covering his face with his hands. "It's the alcohol, isn't it. This is a bar. That's what people are here for. Drinking."

"Drinking poison."

"It's fun. Relaxing." Her mouth twisted in disbelief and he lifted his hands to forestall a lecture. "You know what, never mind. It was a bad idea bringing you here. We'll go somewhere else. It's no problem."

He carefully dropped a hand over her shoulder and steered her from the establishment. He was fortunate the bartender hadn't noticed their escape or he might have been forced to pay for his little joke. "Would it really have affected you if you drank from well, drunk people?" he asked, once they were outside.

She nodded, turning her face toward his. They were really close, but she didn't pull away. "It is in their blood. And I see how it affects them. Would you want me to fly us back when that creature is looking for us when I do not have all of my faculties."

"Right, right," he said with a nod. "Good point." He continued to lead them down the street, quickly racking his mind for a place to take them for her to get something to eat. It was relatively late in the evening. People were cutting loose and drinking. Where could they find someone who was out late at night, but hadn't been drinking. Best bet was to look for someone who was just getting off work. He turned their steps toward the business district, hoping to catch some workaholic on his way home.

...  
Jack had stayed late at the office and he was already dreading going home to his wife. She would not be pleased that he had missed dinner. He had even forgotten to tell her that he wouldn't make it. The meeting had gone long and then he had to finish looking over the reports. 

By the time he had looked at the time, he knew Eliza would have been sitting in front of slowly congealing food for over an hour. If she was still there at all. He hoped it wouldn't be another time when he returned to a dark house and a note saying she was staying at her mother's house. The amount of groveling he had had to do hadn't been kind to his wallet. 

He sighed and headed into the darkened parking garage to toward his car. His feet dragged as the lights from the red car flickered when he hit the button. Perhaps, he should stop off at a bar before he headed home. Except, if Eliza was still there and she discovered he hadn't come straight home, she was going to kill him.

He shoved his hand into his pocket to fish around for his cell phone. Perhaps, he should call now. Better late than never, right? And if she wasn't home, then there was no point in avoiding the bar. His hand closed over the door handle the same time his other hand pulled out his cellphone. A cold sweep of air rolled across his neck, bringing a pair of words to his ears. "Don't move."

...  
Draven was supposed to be keeping an eye out for any passersby, but his eyes kept darting toward Isis. She had one hand on the man's shoulder and the other around his wrist, pulling his hand away from his car. They hadn't been hanging around the parking garage for very long before the guy in the business suit had shown up. He had been muttering to himself as he approached his car. 

Draven had to urge Isis into making her move when the guy had pulled out a cellphone. He didn't want the deed to get caught on the phone by whoever would be on the other line. The guy's eyes went wide blank and he allowed Isis to maneuver him so that his neck was bared to her. "You will not remember the next ten minutes, but you will not be concerned about it. You just lost track of time. It happens." The man nodded. 

Draven did another quick sweep of the floor, but they were still alone. He turned his eyes back and gasped silently when two long elegant fangs slid down from Isis's canines. He tensed as she pierced his neck. Blood welled up from the wound. Her pink tongue darted out and began to lap up the blood as it fell from the two small wounds. She closed her eyes and her mouth covered the injury.

His own tongue darted out to moisten his lips as he watched. Her face... It was blissful. He jumped lightly when she pulled back and went back to delicately licking the wound. Her eyes flickered opened and she stared at the wound. Swiping her tongue over her lips, she stepped back. Her hand on his shoulder was the last to disconnect. He wavered slightly before leaning heavily against his car. She beckoned to Draven and he jumped again before moving toward her to disappear back into the shadows. 

The man looked at the cell phone in his hand and cursed loudly. He jerked opened his car door and slid into the seat. Between one instance and the next, he peeled out of the garage, leaving the two of them behind.

Draven looked over to Isis. Her normally pale cheeks were flushed and her eyes were bright. He bit his lip at the look on her face. "So, that's it?" he asked. His voice sounded loud to his ears and he crossed his arms to lean against the wall. 

She nodded, mirroring his position, but clasping her hands in front of her. "I thought it would be," he hesitated over the word, "messier." It seemed in all the vampire movies he had seen there was blood everywhere. It dripped down the vampire mouth and chest and Isis's chest was spotless. He jerked his eyes back up to her pale ones that were watching him closely. His face felt warm. She shook her head. "What?" he said, straightening up and rubbing the back of his neck.

"No," she said with a small frown. "It is not messy at all. We do not want the humans to notice we have taken any at all. It is quite simple, really."

His mouth opened and closed and he said, "Oh." She pushed away from the wall and took a few steps away from him. He noticed the location of his hand on his neck and couldn't take his eyes off of her. When she looked back at him, he jerked his hand down and approached her. "What's next?" he asked.

She lifted her shoulders in a graceful shrug. "We should head back I suppose. Come on." She held her hand out to him. He hesitated before wrapping his larger hand around her small, cool one and let her lead him out of the parking garage and into the night.

...  
They had barely touched back down on the ground when Tau and Akil burst through the door. "Where were you," Tau demanded. His eyes alighted on their still entwined hands and Draven felt as though the temperature dropped a few degrees. He released Isis’s hand and tucked his hand into his pocket. 

She glanced back at him, but then her attention was distracted as Tau closed the distance between them. "Isis. We were worried about you. We didn't know if the creature had found you or if perhaps the human," his voice twisted at the word, "had told someone of your existence."

"I wouldn't-" He shut his mouth at the dark look in Tau’s eyes. The corner of Tau's mouth lifted in a sneer and he looked Draven over as though he were simultaneously a pile of dog shit at the bottom of his shoe and the dog who had deposited it and he wasn't an animal lover. Draven took a step back. Isis moved to stand between the two and garnered Tau's attention again.

"I needed to feed. There was nothing to fear, though I apologize that I caused you concern."

"Isis," he said. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The anger eased from his face and he placed his hand on her shoulder. Draven bit his lip as she was pulled closer to him and Tau presented his back to Draven to exclude him from the conversation. To cement his status as the outsider, they switched to whatever language they had been speaking when he had first been brought to the decrepit house. 

He spoke to her softly and Akil nodded along to whatever he said. Her shoulders tensed and she glanced back to him. He wondered what was being said. What was her relationship with them? How long had they known each other? The past few weeks seemed a piddly amount of time compared to her centuries of life and who knew how much of those centuries had been spent with Tau and Akil. 

He should give them their privacy and just go back to his makeshift camp in the once-dining room. The thought had just crossed his mind when Isis slid from underneath Tau's arm and came to stand next to him. Her new position did not please Tau, but he clasped his hands behind his back and let her go.

She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and led him inside. "What's going on?" he asked at the frown on her face. 

"Tau has discovered the creatures tracks and they are closing in on this area. It will find us soon."

He was silent for a moment. "I can't tell if that's good or not. Is that good?"

"It would be better if we found it first," she said. She came to a stop in the doorway and pushed him inside a bit. "But that means that it will be over soon." She smiled at him, but it didn't quite meet her eyes. "You will be able to get back to your life soon. I promise."

"Thank you," he said automatically, though the last thing he wanted to do was to go back to his life. He had been missing for about a week, more than enough time for the police to be called, if anyone noticed his absence, and for his classes to drop him from lack of attendance. He might be able to come up with an excuse for his disappearance, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to. Not anymore.

She nodded and the smile faded even from her lips. "I never should have taken you into the city. We were incautious. It won't happen again."

"Hey," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Nothing happened to us." She didn't look reassured. "And I convinced you to go," he tacked on. "It was my fault."

"It was my duty to make the decision to go and I made the wrong decision." He glared over her shoulder where he knew Tau and Akil must be waiting. They had put the doubt in her mind. He opened his mouth to comfort her, but she shook her head and slipped away from him. His hand fell empty by his side. "I made the wrong decision," she repeated, sounding firm, "but it will no't happen again. I apologize."

"Don't." She shook her head and stepped away, leaving him alone in the room. Closing his eyes, he sighed.


	11. Chapter Eleven

"Isis?" She looked away from the window to see Draven standing by her side. She was letting Tau's words distract her. They kept running through her head. She hadn't even heard his approach. She would never live up to the promise to protect him if she let even Draven sneak up on her. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She swung her legs down from the windowsill and nodded. "Of course. Why do you ask?" She clasped her hands together, hard enough she might have bruised herself, waiting for his response.

He took a seat on the ground next to her feet, but didn't immediately respond. Suppressing a sigh, she slid down next to him. She was sitting close enough to him that she could feel the warmth emanating from his body against her shoulder. His essence kept him warm. She wanted to lean into that warmth.

She looked over at him and that seemed to be the catalyst he needed to speak. He twisted his body so that he was mostly facing her and opened his mouth. His dark eyes searched hers and she wondered what he expected to see. "What's wrong?" she asked again, sure that he would speak.

"Tau and Akil," he said slowly. "How well do you know them?" She frowned, turning over his question in her mind. "I mean," he rushed to add, "are you guys like friends or something? Are you and Tau," he hesitated. "Are you more that that?" "Her lips parted, an answer ready to slip free, but Draven's words spilled forth like a tidal wave of water with no floodgate."

"I don't mean to pry. I'm just curious. About you two. Or three really. You, Tau and Akil. You're like over two hundred years old. You must be really close with them. If you're all the same age. It's hard to tell. I mean, I can't even tell you're older than my grandmother. Not that I think you're old. I'm just saying." He laughed softly and shook his head, covering his face with his hands. He leaned back against the wall and groaned loudly. "I don't even know what I'm saying. Just ignore me, I guess."

"No," she said, placing a hand on his knee. His hands dropped from his face and he sat up stiffly. She pulled her hand away, tucking it close to her chest. "I do no't want to ignore you," she said after a moment’s hesitation. "You were wondering about Tau, Akil and I?" He nodded without saying a word. His eyes were opened wide and she worried she had somehow made him uncomfortable. It seemed like it had been so long since she had done so though it was truly less than a week.

"I have seen Akil around, of course. He is a warrior and I have seen him with the other warriors before, but this is the first time we have really spent any time together.” She pondered the pale Akil. “He is a valuable asset. He studied the chimera when it first attacked our home world some fifty years ago and he has been able to help us understand the creatures motivations. I never would have managed to make it in time to save you if it had not been for Akil."

He lifted one corner of his mouth in a facsimile of his usual smile. "That's great. I'll have to be sure to thank him." She frowned at him, but nodded at his words.

"There is no need for thanks. He was doing his duty as a warrior. I am not sure of his abilities in a battle, but he must have some strengths. He never would have been accepted into the warrior's ranks if he didn't, but he seems to be more of a scholar than a warrior. But that is where Tau can pick up where he might not be the strongest.

“Tau is one of the greatest warriors I have ever seen and I have studied many warriors. If it had not been for him, I never would have been able to take the warrior's oath. A lot of people did not think I could or that I should train. They thought I had more important things to be doing, but Tau was always by my side. Always supporting me." She looked away, remembering Tau’s words in her room.

"Even when my parents were not happy with what I was doing, he was there for me. I appreciate everything he has ever done for me. I know he can be a little rough around the edges, but he means well. He has a good heart. He just does not always show it. He is my oldest friend."

"A friend?" She met his eyes as she nodded. He snorted and balanced his forearms against his upturned knee. "He didn't look like he was being much of a friend yesterday."

She tilted her head to the side and the curtain of her long, dark hair fell over her shoulder. "What do you mean?"

Tau may not have been very nice after they had returned from the city, but he had every right to speak to her the way he did. He hadn't been disrespectful. Just disappointed that she would do something so reckless. She imagined if her father had been there, he would be just as cross with her.

"My decisions yesterday could have had irreparable consequences and I did not even think of them. That is my duty and I could have failed you. All my promises would have been for naught."

He shook his head and continued to stare into the room's interior. "It just seems that every since you two talked, you've been doubting yourself. He seems more like a bully than a friend. I don't like him."

"If I cannot save you, for whatever reason, I truly believe Tau will do so. You can trust him."

[She drew back in alarm when he suddenly shifted to face her. He grabbed her hand between his two. His hands were like a furnace around hers. "This is going to sound weird, or whatever, but Isis. I think you're amazing." His face turned red, but he continued to speak despite his physiological reaction.](http://fav.me/d6takp3)

["I really do. You're smart and strong and kind and loyal. And it just seems that since last night you don't believe any of that anymore and you should. Because you are. And I just thought you should know that. Whatever he said to you, I trust you and your judgement. Not him."](http://fav.me/d6takp3)

She didn't say anything immediately, just stared at his hand clasped in hers. "Draven..." She ran her tongue across her lips and lifted her gaze to his. "I." She didn't know what to say. "Thank you. But, I. Tau is. Tau is just looking out for me." He sighed, a sound of frustration, and released his grip on her hand.

For the first time in her life, she felt cold. Her hand stretched out toward him, of its own volition, before she drew it back to her chest and wrapped her other hand around it. "I am in charge of this mission, but it is also my first time really being in charge and my first mission. Tau has been on dozens of other missions. He knows these things. He is just giving me advice and as a leader, I cannot be above listening to it."

"I'm not saying to not listen to him, but you got to listen to yourself too. Don't you. Whoever put you in charge didn't just do it because you're pretty." He stiffened and the color in his face deepened. "I mean, he must have trusted you. You don't have to listen to everything Tau says, you know."

Again, she didn't respond at first, too busy turning his words over in her mind. "It was my father," she said. He lifted his gaze to meet her eyes. "My father approved of the warriors who volunteered to find the creature. When he asked for volunteers, I stepped forward without a thought. Sometimes, I wondered what would have happened if I had just thought it over for a little while. But I did not. My mother was not happy that I chose to come here, but I think he was proud."

She closed her eyes and tried to picture her father's face when she had stepped forward. A little apprehensive, but definitely mostly proud. "And then he put me in charge, even though it was my first mission. I wonder what he was thinking.” With her eyes closed, she admitted, “I am worried that I will disappoint him."

"But he's your father," Draven said into the quiet that surrounded them. "He's known you all your life. If he believes you can do it, then he must know something, right? And sometimes, it just takes someone believing in you.

“It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. If everyone says you're going to succeed, then you step up your game to do just that. And if they say you'll fail, you don't see any other option but to do so. It's hard to cross those lines. Succeeding in a sea of doubt." His voice trailed off. He sat up and shook his head. “ And I don’t think Tau's doubt is helping. You need to remember and think about what your father saw in you. He sounds like a smart man."

She smiled, pleased at the compliment. "He is. The wisest man I know."

Draven's brow furrowed as he thought. "And he must be important." The smile slipped from her face as she contemplated what he could mean by those words. As though he could read her mind, he clarified. Unfortunately, his words did nothing to ease her concern. "I mean to be in charge of your warriors. He must be like a general or something." He looked toward her with an eager look on his face. "Am I right? Is he like a general?"

She pondered how to answer, finally settling on a version of truth. Draven's face was open and honest and she felt physical pangs from having to lie to him. "Yes. My father is quite important. He is the leader of all of the warriors. I think that is partially why Tau and Akil are so concerned about my well-being. Even if it is not their faults, if something happens to me, my father will not be pleased with them."

Draven winced. "Wow. I hadn't realized you were so important yourself. I doubt he'll like me then?" Though he didn't move, she could feel a chasm opening up between them. She placed her hand on his knee again, pleased when his head snapped up and his eyes widened.

"I was hesitant to tell you about my father's status," she said, picking her words carefully, "because I was concerned you would look at me differently. Treat me differently. I like this-I like you. I would hate for our rapport to disappear because of the circumstances of my birth."

He nodded and didn't say a word until she pulled her hand back to her lap. "Isis, I want to, to strengthen our rapport." His mouth quirked up into a smile. "But again, I don't want to offend you and I wouldn't want to upset your father either."

"I am two hundred and fifty years old. I might seek my father's approval, but I do not require it. Please, tell me what is on your mind. You have me curious." He tapped his hand against his upturned knee and avoided his gaze. "Draven, please." He seemed to react to her use of his name the same way she did. He met her eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling it slowly.

He nodded. "Okay. Okay." He clenched and unclenched his hand and then rubbed them against his pants. "But you have to close your eyes." She frowned to cover up her amusement and eyed him. He lifted his hands. "Really. I'm not saying another word until you close your eyes." She could the smile tugging at his lips and decided to comply. "And face forward too."

She twisted around and folded her legs underneath, placing her hands into her lap. Even with her eyes closed, she had a good idea what Draven was doing. She heard the rustle of his clothes as he got up and felt the loss of his heat. His footsteps echoed across the floor and he went to his sleeping area. He wasn’t gone for long, but she could tell he had come back with something in his hands. Something that changed his footsteps, but just barely.

She heard him messing with whatever was in his hands, turning it over even after he had stopped walking, coming to a stop in front of her. Something clicked and she remembered the sound from when he had first taken her picture, not quite a fortnight ago. Before she knew about the connection he had to creature and the connection that it would establish between the two of them. He was taking her picture. Why hadn't he just asked?

Her eyes fluttered, but she kept them shut when he cried out for her to do so. "Don't open your eyes yet. Not until I tell you too, okay?"

She sighed, but nodded, keeping her eyes tightly closed. She heard the camera click a few more times. Finally he finished, placing the camera on the ground next to her. He moved close to her, closer than they had been originally. He placed a gentle, but hesitant hand on her shoulder and turned her to face him at a slight angle.

"I just wanted to do that one more time," he said. His voice was hushed and shook slightly. A nervous tremor. "I know, I know it won't last. I know they won't last once I look at them, but it'll be nice knowing that they're there. I just wish I could look back on them forever. I'll just have to make do with my memories, you know?" She quirked an eyebrow, not quite sure what he meant.

But then he stopped talking and she could feel his breath brush across her skin. He swallowed audibly. Soft lips brushed against hers. He inhaled sharply and scrambled back away from her. She was tensed, she could feel it thrumming through her body, but she kept her position, hands in her lap and eyes closed. The silence seemed loud between them until it was finally broken by Draven.

"All right, you can open your eyes now." She slowly opened her eyes and let her gaze focus on him. He was crouching in the middle of the room, resting on his knees with his legs tucked underneath him. His hands were clenched around the material of his pants and he was watching her with dark, wary eyes. "Okay?"

She ran her tongue over her lips, imagining she could still feel, still taste the ghost of a touch of his lips against hers. His gaze sharpened in on the motion. His mouth hung open slightly and his breath hitched. "I." Her voice came out short and scratchy and she had to clear her throat. Her mother had taught her that shock and surprise were not the emotions of the royalty. One had to know everything or at least give a good impression of it. But surely this was the exception to the rule. She pressed two fingers to her lips and watched him. “Yes. Okay,” she said for lack of a better response.

"That seems to be a...positive response?" he said, though his voice was still guarded. Around her fingers, the smile she tried to keep from her face stretched across her lips. The loss of control was worth it from the blinding smile he presented her with.

"That's an even better response." She laughed softly, moving her hands to wrap around her waist. She tilted her head so that her hair obscured her face from his view. He got up and moved to take his seat next to her again. His hand slowly carded through her hair, tucking the silken strands behind her ear. "You don't look upset?"

"I'm not," she said. Her eyes darted across his face hesitantly before settling on his eyes. "In fact," she said after a moment, "I might not mind a repeat."

"Really?" he said, looking pleased.

She placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him closer to her. She pressed her lips against his for a brief moment before releasing him. "Definitely." He didn't respond. Just covered her mouth his lips. He slanted their lips together. The kisses were hesitant at first as they explored each other's mouth, learned what the other liked and took the time to just experience each other. But then they grew bolder, opening their mouths, sliding their tongues across each other's lips. Tasting. Draven drew back. His eyes were opened wide, dilated and darker than usual.

He gasped in his breaths, but didn't pull away from her. "This is amazing. _You_ are amazing. So beautiful. I can't believe I get to kiss you." She smiled and almost ducked her head in embarrassment. It was only her training that prevented her from revealing her flustered state. He seemed happy to just be around her.

He cupped her face in his hand and smoothed his thumbs across her cheeks, underneath her eyes. She closed them and leaned into him. He brought their lips together again. His lips moved away from her, trailing across her cheeks. He kissed her eyelids and then moved to the tip of her nose. "I could get used to this," he mumbled against her skin, laughing lightly.

"I hope so," she said softly. It felt like speaking any louder would break whatever it was between them. It was just the two of them. For now at least. The thought was like a bucket of cold water over her and she reached up to pull his hands away from her face. He looked confused by her rebuff and she leaned forward to kiss the idea of rejection from his mind.

"Draven," she said slowly, picking her words carefully. "I think it would be best for us if we kept this," she motioned between them, "to ourselves. I am not sure how Tau and Akil would feel about-" Draven sighed loudly and leaned his head against her shoulder. She wrapped her hands around him. "Draven?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said over and over. He lifted his head and she saw the smile on his face. "I'm sorry, it's just. I was thinking the same thing."

"What?" She blinked. "You do not think we should tell Tau and Akil?"

He sat up, getting himself under control with only a slight struggle. "Are you kidding? They sort of hate me already. I think we're better off not giving them any more ammunition than they already need. Besides." He sobered and reached out to grab her hand. "I like the whole secret thing. It seems like the more people who know about things, the more complicated everything gets."

She smiled, glad that they had the same understanding of the situation, and let herself be pulled in close. He wrapped his arm around his shoulder and rested his chin against her head.

"I think this is wonderful,” she said.

"Me too."


	12. Chapter Twelve

Draven stared out the window and tried to keep his impatience contained. He was eager for Tau and Akil to leave already. Wasn't there a way to kick them out of the hideout without arousing suspicion?

They had been together for the past few days and he couldn't be happier. Not even the occasional lulls where Isis got struck with her guilt complex could dampen his mood for long. He did his best to distract her when she got too somber and that was always fun.

The grin that was slowly spreading across his face disappeared when he heard the front door open. He peeked over his shoulder, then turned around as Akil followed Tau through the door. Isis stood in the doorway, watching them leave. When she shut the door, she smiled, a mischievous tight-lipped expression and moved toward him. He met her in the middle in a tight embrace.

"I feel like I've been waiting for the longest time to be able to do that," he said, pulling away. She pecked him once more on the lips before stepping out from the light fence of his arms.

"It has not been that long yet," she said. Her smile was so big the corners of her eyes turned to squint. He wanted to kiss her again, but she moved to stand by the window he'd been staring out earlier. He followed her and embraced her from behind. She laughed, but didn't make him release her.

She was wary, probably because of something Tau had said earlier, but not overly so. It was the perfect balance. In the murky reflection of the broken windowpane he could see her mirth diminished by the familiar frown between her thin eyebrows. Hungry again, but he knew she wouldn't leave him.

“You know I trust you,” he said without preamble.

Surprised, she turned around in the ring of his arms and he drew back slightly to look her in the eyes. “Thank you?” Her tongue stroked across her upper lip and a grin spread across her face. "I trust you too," she said, flashing her teeth in the reflection of the mirror.

"Really?"

"Absolutely." She pressed a hint of a kiss against his lips.

His breath escaped sharply and he raised his hands to wrap around her upper arms. "Good, um, yeah," he said, pushing her away. Her lower lip stuck out and she frowned at him. "I really do trust you. Actually, I think, I think I love you," he said quickly. Her pale eyes widened and her lower lip dropped open in an attractive display of surprise. He felt a thrill of pleasure run through him at being able to astonish her.

"But don't say anything," he said, covering her mouth with his hand. She jerked back slightly and her eyes grew even larger. "There's something else." She didn't look wary, which was a positive sign. "I trust you to and I want to prove it." He moved his hand from her mouth and ran his finger over his t-shirt. Pulling down the collar, he bared his neck to her. "I want you to drink from me."

"What?" she said, taking a step back. One hand darted up to pull his hand away from his collar and the other covered his neck. "What are you talking about?"

"Exactly what I said. I want you to drink from me."

"But why?" She looked completely baffled.

"Because I want you to. I want to feel closer to you." He felt a little jittery, but also that this right. Isis face was surprised and dubious; he needed her to know he was sure about it. "I saw you feed the other day and I know it's perfectly safe. I also know you've forbade yourself from leaving my side again. This makes sense. If you're feeling a little hungry just," he lifted his shoulders in a shrug, "have a glass of me."

"No," she said with a shake of her head. He opened his mouth to argue further, but she lifted her hands and shook her head, closing her eyes so she couldn't even see him. "No. No. Absolutely not. I could not do that."

"But why not? I want you to."

Her eyes snapped open and she looked at him with an intense gaze. "Why? Why do you want me to?"

"Because, because." He shook his head helplessly and shrugged. "Because I love you. And I trust you and I want to show you."

"You do not have to show me. I believe you."

He frowned at her and crossed his arms. "Words are cheap. I want to show you that I trust you completely. I can say anything I want, but this is proof." The corners of her lips drew down and she dropped her gaze. He uncrossed his arms and wrapped them around her shoulder, bringing her close to him again. "Isis?" She didn't say anything.

"Please just think about it. Don't dismiss it out of hand okay? If you get hungry don't just quietly starve. Please?" She sighed lowly and tilted her head up to look at him. She was still frowning, but she didn't look confused or angry. She looked sad. "What's wrong?" She pulled away from him and moved to take a seat against the wall again. He slid down next to her, resisting the urge to call her name again.

"Draven, I have something I need to tell you." That couldn't be good. He felt his heart rate increase and sweat prickle across his body.

He took a deep breath and tried to get himself under control. They were just eight little words. They didn't automatically mean something bad. His grip around his leg tightened, but he said, "Okay," in what he thought was a steady voice. He glanced at her, but she still wasn't looking at him. "What is it?"

Her eyes flickered closed. "You remember my father?"

"Of course."

"Remember how I said he was like a general." He nodded, though she couldn't see him. It didn't matter as she continued to speak. "Well." She clasped her hands together. "That was not exactly," she hesitated, "true."

He nodded slowly. "Okay. What is exactly true?" He tried to run through every possible scenario. The important general's daughter had been hard to swallow. But whatever it was, it had to be worse. Otherwise, Isis wouldn't be making a big deal out of it.

Unless, this was another communication failure and she thought her father's occupation was worse, but it wasn't actually. Like maybe she was ashamed because her father was just a warrior. Or maybe a farmer. He looked at her profile. Did she look like a farmer's daughter? Not particularly.

"My father is king," she said succinctly. He blinked and his eyebrows slowly lowered over his eyes. The words made sense, but it was like he couldn't understand what she was saying. Her father was king? King of what? She turned to look at him.

"My father is king of our home world," she said as though she could read his confusion. "I am the princess. I will take the throne one day. And rule our people," she added after a moment. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, turning to face him fully. "Say something, Draven."

"If you're like immortal vampires, how will you one day take the throne?" he asked. His mouth was disconnected from his brain. Why was he asking her about the politics of accepting her eventual kingdom. Queendom? Was that the politically correct term?

"There's a ceremony," she said. Her mouth pinched with something like irritation. "Is that all you want to know?"

"No," he answered. He pushed to his feet and walked away from her. He just couldn't deal with it. A princess. She was a vampire princess. Did she look like a vampire princess? Yes. She looked, acted, spoke like a vampire princess. He laughed breathlessly and pressed his hand to his chest at the sudden sharp pain located there.

He had been worried that the general wouldn't like his daughter dating some human. What would the vampire king think? He would kill him. Or have him killed. "Why didn't you say anything when, when-" He whirled around to stare at her. She had gotten to her feet and her hands were hanging from her side loosely. "Why didn't you say anything at any point. At any time, you could have mentioned it. When we were talking about our parents or our expectations or when you were lying to me and said your father was a general. You could have just told me the truth."

"How could I?" she asked sharply. She lifted her hands up to motion at him. "Look at how you're reacting."

"Because you lied to me. Because you let me go and fall in love with you when--" He bit his lip to prevent himself from finishing his sentence. She didn't prompt him to continue. She had let him fall in love with her when they had no future.

She was a princess. She was going to be queen. She was going to have marry and have little vampire babies to carry on the line. Maybe she hadn't thought what it meant really. Maybe she would have stayed with him while he got old and gray and she stayed beautiful. And then he would die and she would go back to her life.

Their relationship was barely a blip on the life she had laid out for her. But for him, to date her would be to completely rearrange his life.

He covered his eyes with his hands. "We shouldn't do this."

"Do what?"

He unclenched his teeth. "This. Us. It was a bad idea."

"Because of who my father is?" Her voice was rising in anger.

"No. Of course not." She snorted and stalked back to the window. "I'm serious Isis. This has just made me realize some things." He reached out for her, but she kept her back to him. She braced her hands on the windowsill and dropped her head. He felt something break at the picture she presented.

"Would you have ever told me?” he asked softly. She glanced back at him. “If I hadn't offered myself.” He laughed and shook his head. “Would you have told me on your own?” She hesitated. He could see the thoughts running behind her pale eyes. Was she trying to think of an excuse or did she honestly not know. Regardless, that was his answer. “How long would you have pretended?”

Her eyes narrowed and she straightened. “I was not pretending,” she said in a tight voice. She pushed away from the wall and slowly approached him. Her hand came up to touch him. He shoved his hands into his pocket to prevent himself from reaching for her, clasping her hand, bringing it to his lips. She pressed the knuckles of her hand against his face and dragged them down, over his cheeks and down his neck. He trembled underneath her touch.

"I just realized you deserved the truth. That was it. I had been so caught up in this," he closed his eyes against the pained look in her eyes and forced himself to not move, "that I had forgotten what I had told you. I am sorry I lied. You will never know how much." Draven didn't say anything. She sighed and dropped her hand. His breath escaped in relief.

"I appreciate that," he said. His voice was unsteady and and his hands clenched into fists inside his pockets. "I do. And it's not about the lying. Not really. There's just more to it."

"More like what?" Her voice was lined with sadness and he flinched at the sound. He turned away from her. He couldn't look at her. In the long run, this was what was necessary. It would be better for both of them. It was best if cut the ties to each other before it got too strong, before it became impossible to cut the bond they had established without hurting each irreparably. He tilted his head back and swallowed thickly.

"This is a distraction. You're the princess. Why are you wasting your time here with me?"

"Because it is not a _waste_ of time. I want to be here."

"You should be helping the others find that creature. How soon could the creature have been found if you had been helping them. Or if you had used me as bait."

"Draven," she said in a tremulous voice. "I would never. My place is here. The creature has ruined your life and I have to make sure you live long enough to get it back." He should ask how dating her had been conducive to returning to his life, but even if they couldn't be, he couldn't be that cruel. He didn't want to hurt her.

He wanted the same thing for her that she wanted for him. He wanted her to be able to return to her life. If he knew that, he liked to pretend that he would be able to return to his life. But he was sure it was already too late for him. Meeting of the vampires, almost being killed by the chimera, it wasn't just going to be forgotten once they returned to their home world.

"If you want to make sure the chimera doesn't kill me, why don't you find it first. Our relationship is distracting you from your mission. I know Tau and Akil would think so." He winced at using them as the reason to end whatever they had. "You said wanted to protect me, but I don't see how you'll be able to do that if you’re being distracted by me. I know if something happened to me, you would never forgive yourself. And I don't want you to feel that way."

His voice broke on the last word and he went quiet. Isis didn't respond. He could feel her behind him. What was she thinking? What was going through her mind? Did she hate him. "We can get this finished so quickly," he said, clearing his throat and trying to find his resolve again. "We can use me as bait and-"

"I told you that would never be an option." Isis's voice was hard and unforgiving. He jumped when she walked past him, footsteps so light she might as well have been gliding across the ground. She headed toward the doorway and stopped underneath the frame. Her pale hand rested against the door frame and she tilted her head to the side. The curtain of her dark hair shielded her eyes from him.

"Thank you for your consideration," she said in a stiff voice. "I have promised to protect you and I will do so. Tomorrow night, I will find the chimera and we will end this." It sounded like it would end more than just the chimera. "But be advised." She turned around and met his gaze fully. His breath caught in his throat at the look in her eyes. "I will not leave you-I will not leave until I can be sure that you are safe. Do not try to change my mind." Her hair whirled around her head as she turned away and left through the door.

His breath escaped lowly. His legs wavered and his back hit the wall behind him. He slid down until he was resting on the ground. It had sounded like a threat. And not one he minded too much. Catching sight of his camera, he tried to remember the exact number of pictures he had taken of her.

Turning the camera on, he went through his memories and clicked on the first picture of Isis that showed up. It was an image of her in profile. Her dark, thick eyelashes were resting on her pale cheeks. Her pinks lips were pressed together, but tilted up at the corner as she tried to fight a smile. He covered his mouth with his hand when the image disappeared and all that was left was an empty room.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Draven lightly hit his head against the wall and rolled the camera between his hands. It would be stupid of him to look at a picture now. Isis hadn't been gone an hour and already he wanted to see her face again. Perhaps he just wanted to see her smile again. She hadn't been happy when she left. 

But then no one had been happy. She had had to order Tau and Akil to stay behind. They were worried. The princess wandering the city alone, looking for a creature that by all rights would kill her if it was in its right mind. 

But it wasn't in its right mind. Instead, it just wanted to kill Draven. But she had insisted that Draven not be left alone. If the chimera found its way to their hideout before she locate and subdue it, then she wanted someone there to protect him. She might have sounded cold and angry when she spoke, but he could see that she was still worried about him. 

How long it would take her to forget about him, to move one and find someone who could at least keep up with her lifespan, not including strength, speed, flight and everything else that made vampires different from humans? Would he still be alive when she did forget him. 

He didn't want her to be sad when she found out he had died. If she found out. Hell, she might not check in on Earth once she left. He wouldn't be surprised. It probably didn't have very many good memories. Closing his eyes, he flipped the camera over in his hands.

"I didn't think your soft human skull could take that sort of punishment." Draven sighed and opened his eyes. Akil was standing over him, looking at him with a slight frown on his face. He crouched down and continued to study him. 

Rolling his eyes, Draven closed his eyes and returned to contemplating Isis. He didn't want to waste any time on trying to understand the more silent vampire of the group. He and Isis had barely had an opportunity to get to know each other. And not in a normal situation either. But still things felt incomplete. Like there was more to their story.

The camera disappeared from his hands and his eyes snapped open. Akil was holding his camera with a casual disregard that tightened Draven's chest and made it hard to breath. Scrambling to his feet, he lunged toward Akil. The vampire held it out of his reach and shoved him back with a hand to his chest.

"Give it back," he said in a low voice. Akil's eyes widened, probably in surprise. But if Akil destroyed his camera, he would destroy the last images Draven would ever have of Isis. "Give it to me."

Akil glanced behind him, but it was just the two of them in the room. Draven wasn't sure what had happened to Tau, but he wasn't complaining. He could barely handle one vampire at a time. Akil seemed to accept his solitude and looked back to Draven. After a moment of silence, he lowered his hand and gave the camera back to Draven.

Draven snatched it away and hugged it close to his chest. Akil was looking at him strangely. Maybe he had overreacted, but Akil had just snatched his camera from out of his hand without a word. However, just so Akil didn't harbor any more ill will toward him, Draven said, "Sorry," in a flat voice. "It's like the only thing I have left after that thing completely wrecked my apartment," he tacked on. 

Akil nodded. Rocking back on his heels, he took a step away from Draven. "You are lucky that that is all the chimera did," Akil said after a moment. "I know, I have seen what it can do. A 'wrecked' apartment is getting off easily."

What had Akil seen to say that? "I thought the chimera had killed Tau's dad." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted them. They were more harsh than he needed to be. Just because he and Isis weren't together anymore, it didn't mean he had to be a jerk to everyone. "Sorry," he said again, meaning it more than the first apology. 

"No," Akil said. "It was Tau's father killed by the chimera, but he is not the only one on the mission who was affected by the chimera's initial attack. I was a little younger than Isis is now when the chimera first attacked. I was the youngest member of the warrior's at the time and I truly thought I would be the youngest to die that day. 

“It was fortunate that the creature was subdued before it was my turn to fight." His eyes unfocused and he shook his head. "I promised myself I would never know fear like that again. I refused to let the chimera or any other monster catch me unawares again."

"Oh.” He sat down on the windowsill and placed his camera next to him, on the side farthest from Akil. He had probably just been curious. It was strange; Isis had always just accepted human technology. Akil strove to study it. His thoughts kept turning to her.

He squeezed his eyes shut briefly. When he opened them again, Akil was looking confused again and quite possibly concerned. "It's nothing. I'm fine," he said before Akil could say anything. Not that Akil would probably say anything. Akil and Tau didn't care about him. Only Isis did. He swore at himself internally. Why couldn't he get her off his mind? "Actually," he said, trying to focus on Akil. "Can I ask you something."

Akil's eyes flickered from side to side as though he expected someone else to appear in the room. Again, he resolved himself to talking to Draven and took a step away from the doorway. "If you must," he said in a grave voice.

Draven fought not to roll his eyes. "So, you've studied the chimera. Can you tell me anything about this bond thing? I mean I think it's awful that I've got this connection to this creature." He lifted his hands to his eye level as though he could see the strings connecting him to the would-be rampaging monster. "I just want this to be over." 

All of it. Everything. It was time he tried to salvage his life again. "And I was wondering if there was a way to use the bond against it. It's kind of unfair that this creature gets to use the bond to find me, but we can't use the bond to find it. Unless we can." He looked hopefully at Akil, but the vampire just shook his head.

"It is unlikely." Draven sighed and leaned back against the wall. His eyes narrowed and he took a step toward Draven. "However, my knowledge of the chimera is not entirely complete. Why do you ask? Have you felt something to the contrary?" Draven straightened, sliding down a step. Great. He had piqued Akil's curiosity again.

"No," he said, drawing the word out. "Not really. I mean, you said that it wouldn't happen, so it probably won't."

"I said it was unlikely," Akil said, taking another step. "I am supposing on incomplete data. I have never met a still living soul-mate before."

Draven winced, lifting his shoulder as though the word physically pained him. "You mind using a different term. When I hear 'soulmates' I don't generally think about evil creatures trying to hunt me down and kill me."

"The chimera is not evil," Akil said. He smiled slightly. "The chimera is a magnificent creature. I will be sad when it is destroyed. Unfortunately, there is no way to convince the others to spare its life." The corners of Draven's eyebrows pinched and he took a casual step away from Akil, sliding farther away. A memory came unbidden to mind from a conversation with Isis seemingly a lifetime. Something about a traitor that used the chimera. 

"The chimera is a creature, an animal,” Akil continued unaware. “It has no control over its actions. It is driven by instincts."

"Instincts that want to kill me," Draven pointed out.

"That is not the chimera's fault." And that didn't make Draven feel better. If he was killed by the chimera, he wasn't going to forgive it just because it was thoughtless killing machine. 

"But you were telling me about the bond you share with the chimera,” Akil said, refusing to be distracted. “I have been remiss in questioning you about your relationship with the chimera, but with both Tau and the princess against it, I did not have much of an option. How has it manifested on your end?"

Draven opened his mouth to lie and tell Akil that it hadn't manifested on his end. That's what he had been doing all along, but that was with Isis's protection and interaction. Not that he thought he had lost Isis's protection, but it wasn't the same. Everything had changed.

"Sometimes I have dreams," he said without looking at Akil. "But I don't really remember anything about them. I just get the feeling that I’m me, but me isn't well me. If that makes sense." He winced because he was sure that it didn't.

"Interesting," Akil said. That was good. Or was it. Did he want to be interesting? "In all of my readings, I have never heard of the bonded having any feelings of the chimera. It must be a rare condition." Akil frowned and scrutinized Draven. He was uncomfortable with the intense look he found himself subject to. "A two-way bond," he mused to himself. "I had not considered the possibility, but I suppose it is plausible. No wonder the chimera was attracted to you. You must have a very strong essence."

"My blood?" Draven asked. "I've been to the doctor and they've never said I've had particularly strong blood. I wasn't aware that people could have strong blood."

"No, not your blood," Akil said sharply. Draven lifted his hands to placate him. "Your essence. It is in your blood, yes, but it infuses your entire body. It is what makes you you and what separates the humans from our people."

"Oh," Draven said softly. "I thought that was just the fangs and wings and stuff."

"Not at all. Our peoples are not that different. The essence is different and it has different physical manifestations. Human essence is generally weaker than ours. That is why we can consume of your essence, but you cannot consume any of ours. Well, most humans cannot. Those with stronger essences, someone like you quite possibly, could consume our essence. You might even be able to visit our land, if only for a short while."

Draven's head snapped up and he stared at Akil in shock. His breath caught and he had to force the air to move through his lungs. He had thought-it didn't change anything. Did it? "I could come to your world?"

Akil’s face pinched and irritation crossed his features. "You could, probably. Perhaps. But it would not be wise for either one of our peoples to do so. Humans are not meant to come to our world. You understand." Akil turned toward the door like he was about to leave.

"No, wait. I don't understand. Isis and I were talking, you know, about the chimera and me and how it bonded to me or whatever. It got all attached to my soul. And you just said there was a chance that the bond went two ways. So if the chimera would die from despair if we were separated too far, isn't there a chance that I would die if we were separated. I mean, I'm not searching it out or anything, but I'm dreaming about it. That means something, right?"

Akil frowned, tugging absently on his short hair. "I suppose it is possible. I had not considered it, of course. It is probably safe to assume the princess has not either. She is quite fond of you." His mouth curled at the thought. "She would try to find a way around your death."

"Yes. Finding a way around it sounds like a good idea to me. We should take precautions to make sure that doesn't happen, right?" Akil looked at him in confusion as though he didn't know where the conversation was going. "I mean, precautions that make sure I don't die." Still nothing. "Maybe precautions that don't let me and the creature get too far apart. Something like letting me come with you back to your home world."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Akil’s eyebrows drew down and stepped back as though he had been struck. His eyes darted around, looking to see if anyone else had been around to hear the suggestion. "Are you mad?" he demanded. He took an intimidating step forward and it took all of Draven's strength of will to not back down. "You cannot come back to our world."

"But you just said that I could."

"Yes, you are physically able to come to our world and you wouldn't die immediately like many other humans would. But it would be improper for you to actually come with us. The royal family would not hear of it."

"I thought Isis was a part of the royal family. That's one vote in my favor," Draven said, ignoring the part where it was a monarchy and they probably didn't vote. If he could just get to the other world, he thought they wouldn't immediately turn him away. It didn't really solve anything with Isis, but maybe he could see her a little bit longer. Maybe he could take a few more pictures before they would send him back. He dropped the camera around his neck. Never knew when he would have a chance to take another picture of her.

"That does not mean anything. The only way I could see the Fairbloods allowing you to stay is if you became one of us and that will not happen." He sounded resolved, but Draven ignored his tone of voice.

"What do you mean became one of you." His eyes widened as he remembered all those vampires stories. He hadn't given them any merit, but... "Seriously?"

"Yes, quite seriously," Akil answered. "However, we do not just allow anybody into our world. It would not make sense-"

Draven shook his head quickly. "No!" Akil stopped speaking, looking at him in surprise at his outburst. "I get it that I can't just show up, but did you really mean it about the becoming a vampire thing. Could I be one of you?" Eternal life, incredible strength, speed, flight, Isis...

"Well, yes," Akil said slowly with a frown on his face. "On occasion in our history we have created some more of our kind. It's not a simple process and there is a good chance that you could die, but yes there is a way to become one of us."

"How?" Draven asked.

Akil looked at him closely. Draven feared he wouldn't be able to convince him to tell him how to do it. It wasn't like he could force the words out. His fears were unfounded and Akil said, "You would simply have to shed your human essence and replace it with that of a vampires. In theory, it is quite simple, but the changes that occur could easily destroy you."

Draven frowned and ran over what Akil had said. "Shed my human essence. Are you talking about my blood in that sense?"

"Yes, yes. Your blood," he answered, sounding irritated by Draven's confusion. "What else would I be talking about?" Draven resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It wasn't his fault they kept changing the meaning of ‘essence.’ He was actually getting tired of talking about his essence. It was just a weird thought. He had an essence and a lot of it. But to have someone replace his essence. To lose his essence.

"Wait a minute," he said, lifting his head. Could it be? Was it possible. "My essence. You said that was what the creature was attracted to. But if I become one of you, then I would lose all of the human essence that the chimera is attached to. Could that break the bond without killing me or, at least, not technically killing me. Would that work?"

Akil stared at him with his mouth slightly open. "You know that just might work. We would have to ask the king, but the princess would probably vouch for you. Would you be willing to give up your human life? You would not have the opportunity to come back here. And you would have to feed off of the humans to survive even briefly on this world again."

Would he give it all up? Could he give it all up? He looked down at his camera around his neck as he considered the implications. "Yes," he said decisively. He clenched his hand and stared down at his fist. "I would give it all up." For Isis. If he did that, they could be together. Was he rushing into it? But no. He felt like he could love her forever. 

"We should discuss this with the princess before-" The rest of Akil’s words were lost in a wet gurgle. 

A hand, dark with blood, was protruding from Akil's chest. It twisted and Akil gasped. His eyes were opened and he his hands scrambled at the intrusion. The hand slid out of him and he pitched forward.

Mouth open, Draven flattened himself against the wall, wishing he could step away from the sight of Akil’s prone form and Tau standing over him with a bloody hand. Akil shuddered and then stopped moving, going deathly still. 

"You killed him," he said, barely able to speak the words. 

Tau rolled his eyes and lifted a shoulder in a casual shrug. "Yes. I did. He was getting annoying. And so are you." His eyes narrowed and he took a step toward Draven.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Draven wanted to scramble backward, not wanting the other to get close after what he had done to Akil, but he was already pressed against the wall. 

"Oh, do not worry. You get to live just a little longer. I need you to do what Isis was too weak to allow." Draven's breath caught. He was going to use him as bait. Draven was going to die because he wanted to avenge his father.

"Look, man. I'm sorry about what happened to your father." 

The smug emotion slipped from Tau's face and it was quickly replaced with anger. Violent, violent anger, but Draven kept talking. He knew how this went. If he could keep Tau talking that would give Isis enough time to come and rescue him. He was in desperate need of rescue. Except… His heart sank. Isis hadn't been gone that long. No way she would return in time. He still had to try.

"I don't think using me as bait is what he would have wanted. And I really don't think he would have wanted you to kill poor Akil." Though his eyes wavered, Draven didn't let his eyes drift down to Akil's corpse. "Isis told me about your warrior's oath. I don't think this is in keeping with it."

Tau inhaled sharply and his eyes narrowed to angry slits. "You have no idea what my father would have wanted. And the warrior's oath?" He spat. "Only the Fairbloods take that seriously anymore. But you should understand that. Humans are rather notorious for breaking their oaths. They mean nothing to you."

Draven lifted his hands and made a face. "So why do you want to be like us. Humans suck!" 

"I am glad you agree." Tau's hand tightened into a bloody fist and Draven feared he was going to get the same treatment as Akil despite what he had said earlier. He would have flattened his hand against his chest, as though that would protect him, but his fingers bumped against his camera and he twisted his hand to cradle it in his palm. 

"But I am following an oath,” Tau continued with a manic gleam in his eyes. “One given to a man more important to me than King Osiris. This is exactly what my father wanted though he was supposed to be by my side when I married Isis."

"Marry her?" Draven felt his eyes bulge at the thought. This wasn't how he thought this conversation was going to go. "Does she know this?" What was he talking about? Of course she didn't know. It was impossible to think of Isis being okay with this plan. His eyes glanced down to Akil’s body. Absolutely no way. He had said the Fairbloods believed in the oath. Isis believed in the oath.

Tau waved the question away. "She only need to be willing for a short while. And I am sure she will be when I'm comforting after your untimely death." He sneered. "She seems to think she can save you. But with you dead, she will be distraught and vulnerable. And we will be married." 

Draven felt a rush of anger at the thought of Tau taking advantage of Isis's kind nature and her dedication to her promises. He shoved away from the wall and aimed a punch at his smug face. Tau's hand flashed and his hand was grabbed in a tight grip. He was twisted around and his hand was wrenched around his back. He gasped, hand spasming in pain. 

"Humans," Tau said, sounding amused. "You are so unpredictable. You know you cannot hope to defeat me, but still you try. It is amusing." 

Draven collapsed to the ground when Tau released his arm. He groaned, clutching his hand to his chest and tried to get another feeling, other than pain to course through his fingers. 

"Come on." Tau grabbed him by his shirt collar and dragged him out of the room. "We have a lot to do before Isis returns." 

Draven choked, fingers scrabbling at his collar, trying to get more room for air between the material and his neck as he struggled to keep up with Tau's stride. Tau dragged him outside and easily tossed him to the ground. On his hands and knees, he gasped, trying to suck in as much air as possible. His head was pounding and black spots danced in front of his eyes. 

The vampire just stood there, looking around as though trying to decide something. His wings snapped open and Draven winced at the sharp sound. Without a word, Tau grabbed Draven's arm and took off into the air. He cried out at the strain on his arm, but soon they were hovering over the roof. Tau released Draven's arm and he fell heavily onto his back, breath escaping painfully. Tau landed gently on one foot. 

"Why are you doing this?" Draven asked. Pushing himself up onto his elbows, he glanced around and tried to find anything he could use as a weapon. All he had was his camera around his neck. Short of tossing it at Tau and having him easily swat it out of the ground, it didn't have much purpose as a weapon. "Why would you betray your princess."

Tau rolled his eyes. He took a step forward and sneered. Draven tried to scoot backward, but his hand buckled when he put pressure on it. He sprawled back onto his back to Tau’s amusement. "I betray 'my' princess for the good of my people," he said. "The Fairbloods have been in power long enough and all they've done is drive the pride out of our world. It is time we return to our true home." He spread his hands out in front of him. "Earth." Draven gaped at him. 

"Earth has always been our home. When we were here, we were worshiped like the gods we are. But our cattle grew to fear us and the Fairbloods grew to fear our cattle. They took us away from here 'for our own good.'" He laughed. "The Fairbloods are weak. It's my turn to show our people our true heritage. And it all starts with you." 

His hand shot out and grabbed Draven's hand. Draven's attempts to free himself were in vain and before he could say a word, Tau pulled out a dagger and slid it across Draven's arm, from hand to elbow. He cried out and when he pulled away, Tau let him go. He hit the ground and watched his blood emerge from the wound. "Now, all we have to do is wait for chimera. It will come for your essence shortly."

Draven’s eyes darted around. He eased out a breath and then another. He measured his last moments before the chimera appeared in heartbeats. Something sharp wrenched through Draven and he looked past Tau with a gasp. The air behind him was shimmering slightly and he could feel its approach. 

Tau saw the direction of his gaze and turned around. He glanced back at Draven and smiled. "It must really love your scent. I could not have hoped for a quicker approach." Shrugging out of his jacket, Draven wrapped it around his arm and tried to stop the blood loss. Not that it would matter if the chimera got to him.

The air shimmered like a asphalt on a hot summer's day and then a line seemed to tear the air in two. A familiar claw-tipped hand shoved through the rent and pulled it apart. Draven's breath caught as another hand pulled the tear even farther apart. In the gaping darkness that was revealed emerged the chimera's pale form. Its red eyes darted around in its skull before they landed on Draven. Its mouth opened and it roared. Draven's hands tightened fearfully around his camera.

.  
Isis landed on the roof a building and to get her bearings. She was hurrying to find the chimera-she wanted it done tonight. They had spent too much time just searching for it. It wasn't supposed to take this long. They were supposed to be warriors. Not hunters. Not lovers. 

She covered her eyes with her hand and tried to push Draven from her mind. He was right. Their relationship had turned into a distraction. A pleasant one, but a distraction nonetheless. She was grateful for Draven for putting her back on track, but it still hurt. 

And now, when she was trying to focus on finding the chimera, her mind kept drifting back to Draven. Something in her soul called out for her to return to Draven. She knew she would be able to protect him better than Tau or Akil. Even though Tau was the stronger warrior, he wouldn't have the same passion to see Draven live that she did. 

She knew passion could override strength and experience if one knew how to channel it. That's one thing her father had taught her. That and to trust her instincts. She was a Fairblood. Her instincts would lead her. But right then, she didn't know if her instincts were being clouded.

She hesitated a moment before taking a seat, letting her legs hang off the side of the building. She wasn't helping anyone by standing at the edge and dithering. She needed to think carefully about her next move and make a decision. Once she made that decision, she would stick to it. She just needed a moment to think.

Closing her eyes, she rested her hands on her thighs and took a few deep breaths. She could almost imagine Draven standing next to her. He would be fiddling with his camera and blushing slightly while he said something sweet. Something like, "I believe in you. Whatever you decide, I know it'll be the right choice. You're so amazing." She smiled at the thought and felt herself relaxing.

Then, she imagined her parents. They might be a little stern, but it was because they loved her and wanted what was best for her. They could suggest things to her, advise her, but ultimately she knew what was best for herself.

Hadn't her father alluded to something like that. _"Trust your instincts. You'll know what to do."_ Her instincts wanted Draven. Or was that just her heart? Were they the same thing? Follow her heart or follow her instincts. What else had Osiris said? 

_"You will take lead on this, but you must learn to listen to those who have more experience than you. They will be the experience you lack. You must base your orders on what they tell you, but you must also trust your instincts. You’ll know what to do."_

And what had Akil and Tau said to her. Tau had been against her fondness for Draven. Akil just wanted to focus on finding the chimera. Tau had thought she was being distracted by Draven. That he was putting her in danger. But that wasn't right. She was a warrior, not a fainting flower. She was going to be in danger the moment she took the oath. And if the chimera was heading for Draven, shouldn't she be there?

Isis was a warrior. She should not be letting the chimera get the runaround on her. She should anticipate where it was going and cut it off. Before she had had everyone breathing down her neck, that's what she had done. That night she had burst into Draven's apartment, her instincts had told her he was in danger and she had been right. 

She got to her feet and faced away from the building's edge. She needed to figure out where the chimera was going. Reaching behind her she pulled out her scythe and spun it around in her hands. Shifting her leg back, she sliced through the air.

A dark, indigo tear formed in the air and slowly widened until it was large enough for her to step through. Resting the scythe against her shoulder, she walked through the portal and out into a familiar parking lot. This was where she had landed with Draven when he had convinced her to go into the city for a meal. 

She closed her eyes as the memories washed over her. She didn't believe for a moment that what she had with Draven was over, but they couldn't move forward as long as the chimera was still a threat. She would solve that crisis and approach the next. 

She was the princess. She wasn't allowed to become overwhelmed when more than one thing needed her attention. She just needed to prioritize. She opened her eyes and scanned the area, letting her Sight take over. Her dark eyebrows furrowed, but there was still no sign of the chimera.

Tau had said the chimera was closing in on them and that it was dangerous for them to be away from base. They should stay there where it was safe. But, if the chimera was closing in on them, shouldn't it have made it to this parking lot? It was the most recent place other than their base where Draven had been. His essence was strong here. She could see it, like a bright overlay on the ground. 

She crouched down and placed her hand against the ground. Others had been here, not many, but Draven's was the brightest. Could that mean the chimera wasn't close to finding them at all. Her breath caught and her head snapped up. Or the chimera was closer than she had anticipated. Eyes wide, she swung her gaze in the direction of the camp where she had left Draven. She sharpened her Sight until it was painful, but then she saw it. Draven’s essence was bright, lighting up the sky. 

"Tau," she said softly, anger leaking into her voice. She pulled the scythe from her shoulder. The only way his essence could be that bright was if they were using him for bait. She had told them, all of them, that Draven was not meant to be bait. And now that they had done it, she wasn't there to help them. It was stupid and reckless and treasonous on Akil and Tau's part. She sliced through the air with an angry slash and lunged through the opening. 

Her feet touched down on the street in front of their hideout. Or rather the remains of their hideout. It had been demolished. Nothing but a pile of rubble and debris. There was no sign of life in the wreck. A scream tore from her throat and her scythe dropped low to bury its blade in the ruins.

"No, no, no," the words spilled from her mouth like a mantra. She dropped her scythe and dived into the wreckage. The broken remains of the building ripped and dirtied her clothing, but still she grabbed crumbled bits of mortar and stone and threw them to the side. Broken wood bit into her hands and the stone scraped across her palms, but she didn't allow herself to feel the pain. 

A pale hand came into view and her heart clenched painfully. She shoved aside more of the debris until a dusty dark-haired head came into view. Shaking hands, gently twisted his head around to see his face.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. It was Akil. His gray eyes were staring wildly, but unseeing. 

Biting her lip, she grabbed him underneath his arms and pulled him from the rubble. After laying his body gently on the ground, she closed his eyes and curled his wings around him. A quick scan of his body reveal a large wound in his chest. It wasn't a wound caused by the house falling on him. 

The instrument of his demise had been removed after. It didn't look like a wound caused by the chimera either. They weren't claw marks. Just a single, fatal wound. "What happened?" she whispered.

In answer, she heard rubble shifting and the roar of the chimera. She whipped around. The chimera. It wasn't dead _yet_. It was getting to its feet, shrugging the pieces of house off its pale back as easily as if they were drops of water. It's red eyes looked at her and its clawed hands gnashed together as it roared at her again.

Her hand stretched out for her scythe. Her fingers brushed against the handle. She grabbed it and lunged forward in one motion. Her wings snapped open and she rose above its head. She struck down with her scythe. The blade slid across the chimera's shoulder and from dark, almost black blood, slid sluggishly from the wound. She spun in the air and struck it across its chest. It threw its head back and howled. Large hands, tipped with claws, batted her away.

Thick gouges appeared on her legs. Her breath stuttered out as she pushed herself to her feet. She ran forward, ignoring the pain in her legs and struck her blade across the other wound on its chest. Putrid breath washed over her as the chimera roared its anger at her strikes. It countered with another strike of its claws, sending her flying across the debris and separating her from her weapon. 

Something about the fight seemed off. It was toying with her still. She bit back a scream of anger as she pushed herself upright. She pulled her dagger from her boot so she didn't remain weaponless and looked around for her scythe. She needed to subdue it? 

But why should she bother since it had already killed her team and her, her Draven. She bit back the tears that threatened to leak from her eyes. She couldn't afford the distraction. Her eyes, still in search of her scythe, snagged onto something black that had been uncovered in the fight not far from her foot.

She stretched out a hand and grabbed it. It was Draven's camera. She gasped at the crushing despair that wrapped around her heart. His camera. He loved it. She loved him. And the chimera had destroyed it and destroyed him. She threw back her head and screamed. It was a wordless sound that encompassed her despair and anger. 

Dropping the camera, she pushed herself to her feet and lifted her gaze. Her breath huffed out and she stared at the creature where it was pawing idly at the rubble. It looked back at her, head cocked to the side as though it couldn't understand her anger. And it couldn't. It might have found a soulmate in Draven, but it didn't know what that meant. It was supposed to take care of its soulmate. She was supposed to take care of Draven, but she had failed. 

In his final moments, had he feared? Had he wondered where she was? Had he cursed her for failing to keep her promise? Had he thought fondly of their few moments together? He he wished he had never met her? She wished she had never met him. Wouldn't it be worth it to know that somewhere he was happy and alive. 

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," she said. The chimera dropped to its hands and feet. A rock shattered underneath its powerful grip, but she knew no fear. She was just rage and anguish. "I promised him. I promised!" The chimera lunged forward. She twisted onto her back and kicked the charging creature. She used the force of its motion to propel it forward over her head.

It crashed into the ground, rucking up a tidal wave of rubble and debris. She rolled over and quickly scanned the ground for her scythe. She found it, blade-down, not far from where she had fallen before. Leaping into the sky, her wings snapped out to control her jump and to land gently in front of it. She pulled it out of the ground and twirled it in her hand. 

She turned around when she heard the chimera getting unsteadily to its feet. Its clawed hands opened wide and it threw its head back to roar its displeasure. She was feeling a little displeased herself. She ran toward the chimera, feet seeming to fly over the uneven ground. Not far from the pale form, she slammed her feet into the ground and launched herself high into the air. 

She let gravity guide her motion and headed toward the chimera blade first. The wicked curve to her scythe buried into the chimera's neck. Howling, the chimera grabbed Isis and launched her over its shoulder. She barely managed to catch herself from landing on something sharp. 

The chimera thrashed in agony. Its clawed fingers left deep gouges in its body as it tried to remove the scythe. A smirk spread across Isis face as the blackened blood oozed from the chimera's body. She pulled her dagger out and prepared to make the final strike. She hoped the chimera felt fear in its final moments. It deserved nothing less.

Her steady approach to the chimera was halted when negative lightning shot out from its pale body and her hair floated upward from the energy in the air. She flinched and ducked when another struck the air next to her. Hands over her head, she looked around and saw that the lightning was creating little portals with no true destination. She swiped her hand over them, forcing them close before they could damage the Earth’s innate energy.

Eyes wide, she turned her attention back to the creature just as it tore the scythe from its body. It tossed it aside easily once it was no longer embedded and the lightning settled down to little sparks, not enough to pierce the veil. Her breath eased out and her hand tightened around the dagger as she took a step back. 

She had forgotten. Her anger had blinded her and she had nearly destroyed this world. The chimera had to be subdued first. If she tried to kill it then it could destroy Earth. She had thought her father meant during the battle Earth might be damaged, but she had no idea what the chimera could really do. Earth would have been destroyed while she was trying to avenge Draven. That would have dishonored his memory. 

"All right," she said in a low voice, taking a step back. "Come and get me." Its red eyes darted across her, but not really seeing her. "Come on. I was the one who put that blade in you. Come on!"she shouted. The chimera roared and launched itself toward her. She jumped into the air, twisting around so she landed on its back. Her hand slipped in the black blood that coated its neck as she tried to maintain her balance. The chimera thrashed and scratched at her, displeased to have her on its back.

She tightened her grip and plunged the dagger into the chimera's neck. It howled and the sparks shooting from its body increased. Her hands were quick, drawing the sigil Akil had taught her. 

She had thought Akil would have been there to do it, but she had insisted she know the sigils as well. She had thought Tau would have been there to help hold the chimera down. She had thought she would have been able to protect Draven. She had thought a lot of things, but reality didn't match up. 

As soon as the final line to the sigil was drawn, she forced her own essence into it, activating the spell. The sparks stopped, the lightning trickled off like. She waited for the chimera to do something. 

It pitched backward. 

She gasped and pushed away from the falling body to avoid being crushed under its weight. She landed on one knee and watched the unmoving body. The chimera just lay there. She hesitantly approached it, pressing a hand to its body. It was cold, all the hot fury that had been coursing through it gone. 

All the hot fury that had been coursing through her was gone. She just felt cold and alone. How was she going to be able to return to her father after such a spectacular failure? She may have subdued the chimera, but it had resulted in the death of a human she had placed under her protection and her team.

Grabbing the chimera by its leg, Isis dragged it away from the pile of rubble to where she had left Akil's body. She was careless where she dropped it, sure that it wouldn't wake suddenly. The sigils were drawn into too deeply. It was nothing like the flimsy sleeping spell the traitor had put on the chimera. This would not be so easily overcome. 

She turned back to the remains of their hideout and trudged over rubble to where she had left her scythe. Time to go home. She grasped it and returned to where she had left Akil and the chimera. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Burying her scythe in the ground, she face the ruins one last time. 

Were Tau and Draven underneath all of it still or had the chimera completely consumed them? She cried out at the thought, clutching a hand around her waist. She should look for them. She had to. If she didn't find anything before sunrise, she would leave. She stepped forward, into the remains. Her footing was uncertain and she lifted her hands and spread her wings to help her keep her balance. 

The moonlight reflected off the camera she had dropped and she headed toward it. If nothing, she still had Draven's camera. She would be able to look at the pictures he had thought important enough to immortalize. It was a shame he never thought of himself as important enough. Her hand closed over the camera and she lifted it up. She hesitated before pressing a few buttons to look through the images.

The first image she came to was of herself. Her eyes were closed and mouth was curled up in a little half-smile. Her head tilted to the side and she watched with a little surprise as her image fade from the picture as though she had never been there. 

She laughed softly with a shake of her head. Her captured essence couldn't stay in the picture for very long before it faded from the image. She flipped through picture after picture of herself. Draven had taken advantage of their time together. And he hadn't deleted any of them when he so easily could have. 

She gasped when she came to the final picture, the most recent one. It was the chimera, lunging toward the camera. Its mouth was open wide to consume Draven. She squeezed her eyes closed and felt tears trickle forth.

"Isis...?" She could almost hear his voice. "Isis?" Her eyes snapped open and she whipped around. Draven was standing there, right there. She hadn't even heard him come up, so consumed with grief. His face was bruised and a line of blood trickled from his hairline, but he was standing there, alive. His shirt was covered in dirt and his jacket had been removed and was wrapped around his left arm. She stared at him, unmoving. 

He approached her slowly, picking his way across. "Isis." When he was close enough, he fell on her in a squeezing embrace. Her hands dropped the camera as they were pressed between their bodies and Draven tightened the hug. "I knew you would come. I knew it."

She found her voice long enough to say. "How?" She hadn't even thought she would come.

"You promised," he answered simply.

Her eyes fluttered closed and she sagged against him, wrapping her arms around him. "I thought you were dead." For the first time in what felt like forever, Isis let her emotions well to the forefront and tears fell from her eyes, fully and unimpeded. Her hands tightened in his shirt and she buried her face into the crook of his neck and sobbed. He helped her ease to the ground without releasing his grip on her.

"I love you," he whispered against her cheek. 

She repeated the words back to him. Over and over. "Love you too. Love you. Love you." And they just held each other until they could bear to part from each other for even a moment. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she looked him over taking in all the scrapes and bruises and wounds and life he held. "What happened?" she asked. "How did you survive?" She didn't want to say she had told him not to use himself as bait. She didn't want to get in an argument when she had just discovered him alive. She was just so happy.

He reached out and pulled his camera to rest between them. "I took a picture," he said with a sort of wonder in his voice and a small smile on his face. "The flash blinded it. Badly. It flipped out and totally destroyed the building." 

"Tau?" she asked in a tremulous voice. "Did he, did he survive?" He closed his eyes and the smile faded from his face. She covered her mouth with her hand and braced herself for what he was going to say. "He is dead?" She pressed her hands to his face and tilted his head up to meet her gaze. "Just say it."

"It's so much more, Isis. I'm sorry. He, he attacked us, just out of nowhere." She frowned, unable to understand what he meant. The chimera? "He k-killed," he stuttered over the word, "Akil and dragged me up on the roof." He motioned toward his bandaged arm. "He cut me to lure the chimera here."

"Tau?" she said in a low voice, still unable to comprehend

Draven nodded. "He said he and his father had been trying to overthrow the Fairbloods. They wanted to take Earth back over, so they could be gods here."

Isis mulled his words words. She should have doubts, she knew she should, but it made sense in a terrible way. And she trusted Draven. He wouldn't lie about something like this. It was too important. 

But the thought of the general and Tau turning their back on the king and on their people... "We have to tell the king." She shook her head and pulled her hands back. "I have to tell the king," she amended. Draven couldn't come with her. He wouldn't be able to survive in her world. 

Draven grabbed her hands again and pressed them to his chest. She could feel his heart beating underneath her palms. "Akil, before he was-Akil said that I had a strong essence. He said that I could survive in your world for a short while. And that you could turn me." Her eyes widened and he darted in a pressed a kiss against her lips before she could say anything. "I want you to turn me."

"But, but why?" she cried with a shake of her head. "Your life here-I promised I would leave you in peace."

He shook his head. "I don’t want you to leave me in peace. That would leave me in pieces. It would shatter me, to not be with you. I want you to turn me," he repeated. "Every time you promised me, all I could think of was being with you. I don't want to return to my life. Except for my parents, there's nothing left for me here. There's nothing here. And wherever you go, there is everything for me."

He bent down to pick up his camera. "Isis, I know that I can't keep your picture on film, but I would like to take another to replace it when it disappears. And another and another for the rest of our lives." He laughed softly. "I should probably be on my knees for this, but Isis I want to be with you forever. Is that, is that something you want?"

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a tight embrace. "Yes, Draven. I want that. Forever." 

"Not-" Isis froze, eyes going wide at the sound of that dark, gravelly voice. "Not so fast," it said, followed by a weak cough.

Pushing away from Draven, she turned around and saw Tau emerge from the rubble, shaking it off with a tenacity she used to admire. Now, now it just made her tired. He brushed the back of his hand across his lip and looked at the blood smeared there with a sneer. Draven took a stumbling step backward and cursed softly.

"Seriously? A freaking house just fell on you."

Tau's dark eyes snapped to him and he sneered. "You survived. You think I would be brought down some flimsy human construct." Draven's face clearly said that yes, he had thought that. 

Isis stepped between them. She didn't want Tau even looking at Draven after everything he had done. "So, it's true then."

He rolled his eyes and straightened to his full, impressive height. "Yes, _princess_ ," he spat. "It's true. If you weren't so infatuated with that disgusting human, I might have spared your feelings and insisted he was wrong, but you would believe him over me. You would take him back to our world. A human in our world? And not for food. You're a fool."

"I'd be a fool to have disregarded Draven's word in favor of yours. Instead, you're the only fool here." She lifted her chin and tightened her hands into fist. Seeing him standing there, he looked just like her old friend. He couldn't have been faking all this time. "Please, Tau. Stop this. You're injured. Please. Come back home. We can figure out-"

He laughed and it was ugly and dark. "Figure it out? There's nothing to figure out. If I go back with you, I will be executed for treason." He crossed his arms, but shifted into a casually, dangerous stance. He was going to attack her. And she didn't have her scythe with her. "But if I go back with your body, well I'll be hailed the last remaining hero. People will mourn and my plan can be salvaged."

"That's all you care about?"

"Don't be naive, Isis. That's all anyone cares about. Taking care of themselves." He swept his gaze over her and sneered. "I'll be glad to get rid of you."

There was no warning. One moment, he was staring at her in disgust and the next he was lunging toward her. She shoved Draven backward and braced herself for the impact. He slammed into her and took her off her feet. His left wing wouldn't extend all the way, but he had mass and strength over her. Always had. She twisted around and shoved him away. They both landed onto the rubble. Her vision darkened and she was slow to rise to her feet.

She could still see Tau's smirk though. "You're right, I am injured, but you didn't come away from your fight with the chimera unharmed." Her leg buckled underneath her and she slumped back to her knees.

"Don't do this, Tau."

"Don't try to reason with me, Isis. I will destroy you and then you're entire family. You always whined about what you were meant to do. Well this is it for me. This is what I'm meant to do."

She swallowed thickly, letting her eyes flutter close for just a brief moment, and nodded. She forced herself upright, ignoring the tremor in her legs. "All right. We'll see who was right then."

His smile widened. "Yes. We will."

He darted forward again and she barely launched herself into the sky in time. Her reaction was slow and her body ached. She couldn't have another fight like before. Her eyes widened when both his wings snapped open and he took off after her. His fist landed in her stomach and, with an elbow to her neck, she fell out of the sky. She twisted around to let her arms and legs catch her. She couldn't lose her wings.

"Always so ready to believe what you see, but I'm not as injured as you. I eat when I am hungry because this world is populated by food. Not lovers."

She trembled on the ground, head bowed and in pain. _Get up, Isis. Get up. You can't let him win._

"Get up, Isis." Her head snapped up. Draven. He shouldn't be there. He couldn't be there. Tau would kill him. His face was pale and his wide eyes were focused solely on Tau. "You can do it."

She nodded and forced her legs under her to do as she said. If she died, then Draven would die and her mother and father were dead. All all the humans were dead. She couldn't let him win. She got to her feet, slowly and shakily. 

"You can do it," he said, tearing his gaze away from Tau to grace her with a smile. "I know it." And then he took her hand and wrapped her fingers around a rough, familiar hilt. Her scythe.

She smiled and nodded. She got to her feet and faced Tau, sensing more than seeing Draven retreat. Tau was stronger than her and less injured, but passion could override strength and experience if it was channeled. And she refused to let him win. Twirling the scythe around her hands, she lifted it up. 

"Let's end this."

"Let's," he said, sounding bored. "And once I'm finished with you, I'll enjoying have myself a nice, replenishing snack." His eyes flickered over her shoulder, leaving no doubt who that snack would be.

She lunged forward with a cry. Her attack had surprised him and he barely slipped out of her way. Her scythe planted into the ground and she swung over the handle to kick him in the chest. He shouted in pain, hand going to his ribs. She tried to follow the attack with another strike, but he caught her hand and kicked her in her wounded leg.

They separated and stood there, watching each other and panting. They came together and fell apart again and again in that fashion. She was reminded of their training session, except there was a lot more blood during this exchange. Tau wanted to destroy her. She needed to stop him. She slammed into the ground, her shoulder slamming against the blade of her scythe and leaving another wound on her body. Tau jumped into the sky to hover over her. She needed to stop him. 

He folded his wings up and dropped low, allowing gravity to be the force behind this final blow. This was it. She couldn't move, but she couldn't let him win. She needed to stop him. No.

She needed to kill him. Trembling hands pulled the scythe from the ground and held it up. Tau's eyes widened. And when he impaled himself on the blade, his face was frozen in that shock. She pushed him away and scooted away from his body.

She buried her face into her hands and trembled. 

She didn't know when she came back to herself, but she immediately noticed the warm hands rubbing against her back. Draven had his arms around her and murmured soothing words into her ear. She lifted her head to stare at him.

“I’m sorry about your friend,” he said and she fell in love with him a little bit more.

“Yeah. Me too.”

She accepted his help in climbing to her feet and finally glanced back toward Tau’s body. Steeling herself, she pulled the scythe out. Clearing her throat, she held out her hand and Draven easily grasped it.

“We have to take him-them-all of them back with us,” she said with a deep breath. “Akil deserves to be buried at home. The chimera can’t be killed here without destroying your-Earth. And Tau…” She trailed off, but Draven still nodded in comprehension.

“Let’s,” he squeezed her hand. “Let’s go home then.”


	16. Epilogue

The throne beneath King Osiris creaked as he leaned forward. Draven felt like he could still hear the ring of Isis's voice. She had just finished explaining to her father, everything that he had told her and what she had witnessed. Akil's death, Tau's treachery. 

The chimera had been taken for safekeeping and now they were just waiting for the king's judgment. Draven felt like he should be fidgeting under the crimson gaze of the king. It was odd being the only human in the room, but he wasn't scared. Not so long as Isis was standing next to him.

"This is troubling news," Osiris said. His hands clenched around the decoration at the end of his armrest. Draven thought he could hear it creak and guessed that the king was a little more than troubled. "These are strong accusations." Inhaling softly, Isis lifted her chin and waited for his pronouncement. "But I will look into it. If nothing because of the death of Akil and Tau."

Isis's mother, Freya, made a sound and pressed her hand to her face. She was gorgeous in that cold unapproachable way. Even when Isis had been chilly, she hadn't been quite as glacial as her mother. Osiris glanced at his wife, but didn't say anything to her. "Was that all you had to report?" he asked, flicking his eyes toward Draven.

Isis hadn't yet mentioned why she had brought a human back with her. Squaring her shoulders, Isis reached down and grabbed his hand. Draven's eyes widened as he looked at her, but he squeezed her hand gently. "I see," Osiris said, leaning back. Draven didn't think that was a good sign.

Freya tapped a finger against her the gilded edge of her throne. "Perhaps you would like to explain it to me, Isis. Do you have any idea what this means?" Draven was grateful they were going with English for this discussion. He didn't want to be kept out of the loop for it.

"Yes, I do," she said stiffly. "Draven has expressed an interest in joining our world. And as you can see," she lifted their joined hands, "his essence is strong enough to withstand the change."

"This requires a strong bond between the two of you." Her purple eyes narrowed as she scrutinized them. "Do you really think you are ready?"

"Yes." She glanced at Draven, arching her eyebrows, and it took him a moment to understand the meaning behind the look.

"Oh! Yes. I love Isis and I trust her completely." He looked between the king and queen. "I want to spend the rest of my life with her," he finished.

Osiris's eyebrows lowered over his eyes, but still he didn't say anything. Draven was caught off guard by the smile that spread across Freya's face and warmed her face considerably. "That is joyous news!" she announced, getting to her feet and gliding down the dais. Draven was buoyed that he wasn't the only one startled by Freya's enthusiasm. Isis's grip tightened around his, but abruptly released him when Freya wrapped her arms around her. "Isis, I am so proud of you."

"You are?"

"Yes!" Freya frowned at her. "You needed conviction. I was not sure the warriors would give it to you, but now I am sure you have it. I am happy for you. And I'm certainly happy that there will be a bonding ceremony." She pulled Isis into another hug and this time Isis went willingly into her mother's arms. "When should we do it."

"Soon," Isis said.

"Oh," Draven said, lifting his hand to get their attention. "Before you get carried away, can I make one request."

Isis smiled and reached for his hand again. "Yes, of course."

"I'd be happy with whatever you chose to do, but I know my parents would be disappointed if they missed my wedding. So is there anyway they can be included?" 

Isis glanced to her mother who just nodded. "Of course. It is nice to see that you are thinking of your parents. I'm sure we can come up with some kind of hybrid wedding? It might be a challenge, but I think we are up for the task." 

Draven glanced toward the king who remained unmoved by the discussion to see him being scrutinized by the man. His shoulders hunched and he tried to focus on Isis. Something told him it wouldn't be easy getting along with her father. He glanced toward his fiancee and smiled. Still it was worth the trouble.


End file.
